Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

January 31, 2001, Page 32

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

January 1891

 

Gen. Falk has appointed William B. McPherson of Clark County as storekeeper for the quarter master general’s department.  Both the adjutant general and quartermaster general have decided to increase the working hours in their offices from six to eight hours per day.  This won’t seem hard to McPherson, the Sherman township veteran, as he is used to work after laboring 14 hours a day on his pioneer farm.

 

The latest news from West Weston Township is that a post office has been established.  It will be called the Globe post office with George Gates as its postmaster.

 

Billy Cooper has opened up a fine stone quarry.  He is filling contracts of $4.50 per cord for good square rock.  The selected stone is $5.00 per cord.

 

Alderman Mathes Kapellan has purchased a part of the Furlong property on Neillsville’s north side, south of the first ward school house.  He will build a new beautiful residence there in the near future.

 

It has been definitely decided that the railroad to Marshfield from Neillsville will not be operated until after the ground thaws out and settles in the spring.  Part of the line’s tracks were laid after the ground was frozen which means accidents could occur if trains were to run over it now.

 

A construction train on its way to Marshfield on Tuesday had a smoking and baggage car attached, so a considerable delegation of local citizens, who had the time to spare, took the run over the new railroad track.

 

The first accident on the Clark County branch of the Wisconsin Central rail line occurred last week and resulted rather drastically for J. C. Marsh, the Spokeville mill man.  The construction rain has been working along the new line and that morning pulled through Spokeville running at a good rate of speed.  The engine was pushing several rail cars.  When the train reached the spur in the railroad track, running from the main line to the mill of J. C. Marsh, instead of finding the switch closed, it ran onto the spur.  The onward course of the engine could not be checked until it came in contact with the mill. The force of the train knocked a hole into the building and the head car struck the boilers in the mill, displacing them and made sad havoc with the machinery. The mill engine was also considerably damaged. At the present time, a rail car stands in the mill and the plant has the appearance of having been struck by a cyclone.

 

It is thought that when the train left Spokeville on Tuesday evening, the trainmen neglected to shut the switch.  The damage to Marsh’s mill plant is considerable and will reach $2,500 in repair cost. The Wisconsin Central Company had informed J. C. Marsh, yesterday that they will pay $2,500 for the damages to the mill.

 

The Lutheran School house is nearly completed and adds one more substantial proof to visitors coming to Neillsville, that we are an educated town.

 

A new Congregational Church has been organized in Neillsville and is holding worship services at the theater.  It has a Sunday School and other features of a church.  Its organization is due to the action of many members of the Presbyterian Church, who withdrew to form a new church in order to stand by the pastor I. H. Lish. The Presbyterian Church body declined to authorize Lish to preach in their church in Neillsville, after he had been engaged, as such, here for a year.  The first social of the Congregationalists was held last week with a large attendance.  There is talk of building a new church building for the new society, which has been having a very good attendance at the Sunday services.  The congregation’s split shows, at least, how small a part creed plays in modern Protestantism.

 

The Crystal Washboard Co. is getting a quality of annealed glass, vastly better than that which had been previously used, to make a quality washboard.  The factory will soon be reopened, running full capacity, manufacturing the redesigned washboards.  (Annealing glass was a process by which in making the product, it was heated and cooled slowly for the purpose of making the glass less brittle. The process also fixed the blue color in the glass for the washboards.  D. Z.)

 

The Greenwood Gleaner is the new Greenwood newspaper.  It is a five-column quarto, edited by W. K. Speer.  As a neighbor, we welcome the Gleaner and trust that all will be well with it.  The people of Greenwood are delighted to have a newspaper of their own.

 

No more remarkable of a spectacle can well be imagined, than to see a huge load of logs on bobsleds hauled over a dry, dusty road, by a span of horses whose gait indicates their task is not a hard one.  The first look at such an unaccountable spectacle is calculated to make one doubt his senses, but the matter is easily explained.  Trenches are cut to gauge the sled runners that are filled with chipped ice and water. This forms a solid, smooth ice tract with the surface of the track lower than the level of the ground.  The sled runners will keep track even if the driver were to go to sleep, as the horses are too wise to try to go where the sleds would pull hard. Boys, called road monkeys, are detailed to each carry a broom and thus keep the ice tracks clear of dust and dirt which the horses’ feet have thrown dust on the ice in the track.

 

Fifty-four car loads of steel rails for the Lake Shore railroad extension to Marshfield have arrived in Wausau. The work of laying the new rails will begin soon.  Work on the railroad line’s new steel bridge is progressing and will be a most substantial structure when completed. 

 

Ex-Sheriff Johnny Dwyer was hit by the carriage in Farning’s mill in the Town of York on Tuesday forenoon.  One of his legs was broken and the ankle of that leg was thrown out of joint. With great presence of mind, Dwyer threw the carriage lever back instantly, preventing greater injury to himself.  Dr. Lyman set the broken bones and dressed the wounds.

 

January 1946

 

The first shipment of mufflers went out from the Nelson Muffler Corporation’s new Neillsville branch factory last week.

 

The shipment was a comparatively small one, numbering slightly more than 400, but it gave evidence of the fact that the local plant is getting into operation.  It was a partial shipment of a larger order for small tractor mufflers and it went out on schedule. The remainder of that order was to be shipped today.

 

The tractor muffler however has not been the only type of muffler under production in the local plant. Six giant mufflers, made for use on railroad locomotives, also were shipped from the plant.

 

The locomotive mufflers are comparatively slow in production, for they require a considerable amount of hand work.

 

At present, the Nelson plant is operating with nine men, under the supervision of Joseph Ylvisaker, local plant superintendent. Some of the employees are experienced in working with metal and the machines used in the manufacture of mufflers.  But, by and large, the necessity of the business has been to build from the ground up.

 

A few more machines will be in use at the plant within a short time.  When they are put into operation, production at the Neillsville branch plant is expected to increase.

 

Clark County soldiers, coming back from the war, face a fate of another nature – marriage.

 

At least, a survey of the county clerk’s marriage license records for the year just ended reveals soldier boys are unusually fine targets for Dan Cupid’s darts and the blushing maiden’s eyes.

 

Marriage licenses issued in Clark County in 1945 numbered 215 – the largest number since the year at the beginning of World War II, as one of the top marriage years on record.

 

Although the marriage license business last year was brisk; it did not come up to the record of 1941, when 236 couples wedded as the war came closer and closer to home. But it was approximately 35 above the average peacetime year.

 

Ice broke up and jammed in the Black River to a point beyond the Dells Dam Bridge.  It also broke up in the O’Neill Creek pond here last weekend, January 5th, as Clark County encountered “June in January.”

 

With three-quarters of an inch of rainfall measured, accompanied by temperatures as high as 41 degrees, the local area experienced the most “unusual” weather in the memory of many an old resident.  (This article tells us that unusual weather patterns have happened before, in the history of our area.)

 

Vet’s Village, on Neillsville’s southwest side, will be ready for occupancy within two weeks.

 

A rental charge of $18 to $22 per month for the pre-fabricated houses of the “Veterans Village” was set by the city council this week.

 

The single-unit houses will rent for the minimum figure; while the large double-unit houses will rent for $22.

 

In arriving at a rental charge, the council took into consideration the cost of the emergency housing project to the city, distributed over a two-year period. The average cost per house, according to figures furnished to the council by City Clerk Dale K. Armitage, is $410.08, or about $17.97 per house.

 

In the way of furniture, about all the veterans and their families will need are a bed, dresser, dining room table and chairs, Mayor Anderson said.

 

At present, 24 applications have been made at the city clerk’s office for the 12 houses.  (The City of Neillsville lacked housing for the returning war veterans at the war’s end so emergency housing had to be provided for the veterans and their families.  D. Z.)

 

A $500 Christmas gift from Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Johnson of Racine boosted the fund for a new Lutheran Church, here in Neillsville, to over $6,000 for the year; according to the Rev. William A. Bauman.

 

The Johnsons, who are connected with the wax manufacturing interests in Racine, made the gift a memorial in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Lewerenz, Jr., of Neillsville, whose daughter, Lorraine, is employed in their home.

 

At the close of the year, the fund had accumulated $6,000 in war bonds, Rev. Bauman said. 

 

Milo Mabie, who recently was discharged from the U. S. Navy, after service in the Pacific, has purchased the barber shop previously owned and operated by Harold Pischer.

 

A large concrete monument to the Thirty-Second “Red Arrow” division stands at Santa Marla, Luzon, on the base of the old Villa Verde trail.

 

The trail has been renamed the “Red Arrow Trail” in honor of the division in which so many Neillsville and Clark County men served.

 

The monument, built by U S Army engineers, was dedicated in September of last year.  Present among the original members of the National Guard units which composed the division was Capt. Dale Schweinler of Neillsville, who has been spending a holiday furlough here.

 

Representing the division was Brigadier General McBride, temporary commander of the division.

 

A house-to-house collection of used clothing will be made in Neillsville on Saturday, January 26. The collection is to be made in behalf of the Victory Clothing Collection. The purpose of the drive is to provide clothing for the needy living in war-ravaged countries in Europe and Asia.

 

The collection here will be made with the use of cars and trucks. The city has been divided into wards for the purpose of the drive. The V.F.W. will be responsible for the collection in the First Ward; American Legion, Second Ward; Rotary, Third Ward; Kiwanis, Fourth Ward.  Boy Scouts will aid in the collection, also.

 

The collection has been under way in the Neillsville area since January 14.  A considerable quantity of clothing already has been brought to the collection headquarters in the Rotary clubrooms, on the second floor of Wagner’s Café.

 

The new school bus has arrived in Neillsville and went into service Wednesday morning. The bus will cover the Globe, Christie and York communities, starting with about 25 passengers.

 

The bus driver is Myron Payne of Neillsville, a returning Marine.

 

The new bus is like the first one which was put in service last year.  It will carry 48 passengers and the expectation is that its capacity will be taxed in years to come.  For this school year, however, some of the students residing in the area to be served had already made their arrangements for transportations and are abiding with their plans.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Clouse, newlyweds, are making their home on the groom’s farm near Loyal. The bride is the former June Murphy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Murphy of Owen; and the groom is the son of Ira Clouse of Loyal.

 

Dr. J. H. Brooks, who has practiced dentistry in Neillsville for more than 45 years, has sold his business to Dr. Carroll N. Schield, and will retire.

 

Dr. Brooks came to Neillsville in 1900, just after his graduations from Northwestern University.  He went to the old O’Neill House, which was at the time the leading hostelry of this section.  His first professional service was to pull a tooth for the father of Art Haugen.  Haugen had a tooth that was aching and he found the young dentist at the hotel.  Forceps were produced and the tooth was extracted as the patient laid (lay) in a retired position in the hotel office.  Since that time Dr. Brooks has attended to a large number of teeth for several persons in the Neillsville community.

 

Dr. Schield is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Schield of Neillsville.  He graduated from Neillsville High School in 1936, spent six years in studies, graduating in dentistry at Marquette University in 1942 and was promptly called by Uncle Sam.  He was stationed in England for a time and after the invasion went to France and later to Belgium and Germany.  He was a captain in the medical department of the engineers.

 

Dr. and Mrs. Schield, and daughter, Patricia, are presently making their home with his parents due to lack of housing in the city.

 

As a Michigan couple worked at renovating their house, this small salesman’s sample of a washboard was found.  The lettering at the top of the board states “Neillsville Crystal Washboard,” plus other wording.  The miniature blue-glass washboard now hangs on the laundry room wall, as a decoration in the couple’s home.

 

 


© 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