Good Old Days

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

Clark County News

July 1901

Owing to the rush of orders, the employees at the furniture factory have been working until 7:30 p.m. every day.  The fellows are working eleven and one-half hours each day instead of the regular ten hours.

Miss Sebold finished her season of millinery work at Balch & Tragsdorf’s store last Saturday night.  She is returning to her home in Plymouth.

The Parmly estate was sold last week to the Wisconsin Land Co. that included a total of 17,000 acres. The transfer papers required $42 worth of US Revenue stamps.

Joe Morley’s baby son, age six months, and Henry Myers, age 60 years, are both down with the whooping cough.

The following reason was given by a minister in a neighboring town who would be in favor of women taking their hats off in his church.  He said, “No human being can get much good out of a sermon unless he can see the speaker’s face and study his expressions.  No sermon can inspire a man when he is looking into a lopsided contraption of dead birds, stuffed weasels, chameleon skins, ribbons, net, beads, straw, paper flowers, corn tassels and thistle down.  It makes the sinner feel lost in the wilderness.”

The Taplin-Eisentraut foundry and machine shop has been moved to the south side of O’Neill Creek.  It has now filled the gap in history where Gene Webster’s livery stable was located back in time.

Those who live in southwestern Pine Valley and western Levis townships should interest themselves in a bridge at, or just below Ross Eddy.  They would save themselves a lot of travel and hill climbing.

The cost of repairing the Grand Avenue Bridge, that spans the Black River, falls on the Town of Pine Valley and not on the city of Neillsville.  Work on the wrecked structure has been going on for several days.  Meanwhile, A. Gress has rigged up a flat boat and runs a ferry back and forth, charging five cents per round trip.

The Omaha officials have generously hauled 100 carloads of earth for filling and leveling up the parking area opposite the depot.  The space had been too low for parking buggies.  The driveways around the depot are being paved with cinders.  Mud holes in that area will be a thing of the past.

Last Wednesday evening, at about dusk, the Misses Bess and Gertie Kennedy, Irma Schuster and Viola Youmans went for a buggy ride with the Kennedy horse and the Schuster rig.  They had just left Viola Youmans at her home and were returning through town when a July 4^th skyrocket whizzed upward from a side street.  As it flew overhead, the horse jumped to one side, bursting the bellyband, pulling him in, and the fills went over his back.  The horse was thoroughly frightened and started to run.  Bess Kennedy jumped out of the buggy, but her sister, Gertie, and Irma Schuster stayed in, pulling steadily on the reins. After an exciting whirl around a few blocks, the horse was stopped down by Harv Rickard’s residence and there was no further damage.  No horse on earth could stand a skyrocket zooming ten feet over his head and not evince a desire to run away from it.

The Methodist Church, of Neillsville, will have an ice cream social, Friday evening, at the Bandelow farm near Cunningham Creek.  A carry-all and team of horses pulling it will leave the Methodist parsonage at 7:15 p.m.  The round trip, including the cost for the ice cream is 15c.  It will be a cool place to spend the evening.

The crew of men, under F. C. Williams; have been working on ditching along the Omaha railway near here.  Wednesday morning, they all refused to go out to work.  They wanted a raise in pay, from $1.50 to $1.75 per day.  The strike was quickly settled by the railroad management who fired the whole crew and postponed the work for the present.  Many of the workmen are residents of Merrillan, but all were boarding in Neillsville.  Their presence in town kept our boarding houses and other business places busy, which will be a loss to our city.  The men will also feel the loss of pay by not having jobs.

H. H. Heath and his workers are putting out some sweat as they work on raising poles for a toll line between here and Marshfield.

Charles Rexter, now living in the town of Washburn, was in town Monday.  He was formerly the owner of the Kurth place, east of town.  At that time, in the early 1870s, the Kurth place was known as Rexter’s Corners.  Since then, Rexter has spent most of his time in Humbird.

John Owen was here, in Neillsville, on Sunday.  He drove down from Owen’s Mills, traveling in his automobile.  Owen is the owner of the first automobile in Clark County, or this part of the state.  Clark County roads are in first-class shape for automobile travel this summer and that means is far ahead of going on a bicycle and walking.

Mrs. E.V. Bailey has a most substantial retaining wall built along the east side of her lot.  The wall will protect her lot from the rivulets formed by the rains and melting snows going down into Goose Creek. The lot will be sloped down to the top of the wall, then to be planted into grass.  It will have a neat, pretty and rich appearance that incidentally has cost her a good round sum of money.

A shocking accident took place three weeks ago at the E. D. Webster home in Neillsville.  Little Elvira Baker, aged three years, fell headlong from the second story railed portico, rolling over the lower porch roof, landing on the stairs below.  She then rolled or bounded to the stone walk beyond the stairs.  The little one, with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Tom Baker of Tony, Wisconsin, have been visiting here.  They were standing on the portico watching the Si Slocomb band and parade.

The little girl’s skull was cracked in two places, leaving indentations.  Dr. Bradbury and Dr. Frank T. Conroy set the bones in place and made little Elvira as comfortable as possible.

Now, three weeks later, we have heard that the little girl as been healing well and is recovering remarkably. She and her mother left by train to return to their home on Friday.

An early 1900s view of Grand Avenue looking southward with Fourth Street in the foreground.  The E. D. Webster home is partially in view at the far right, showing a portico, balcony on the second floor, above the front porch.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Robert’s Family Collection)

July 1946

Clark County’s farmers and dairy plants teamed together last year to push the county’s production of cheese and condensed and evaporated milk to record levels.

More than 32 million pounds of cheeses of all types were produced in Clark County’s diary (dairy) plants ranking the county second in the leading dairy state of the nation.  Condensed and evaporated milk production totaled more than 85 million pounds.

In its annual survey of dairy production in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Crop and Livestock Reporter placed Clark County second in the production of American cheese, with 26,694,000 pounds.  This is an increase of more than 2 million pounds over the record level reached in 1944.  Marathon County led in the production of this type of cheese with a total of 28 million pounds.

A total of 44 deer were killed by automobiles in Clark County during the first six months of this year.  Game Warden Alva A. Clumpner reported the totals this week.

The formal opening of Gates’ service station on Neillsville’s south side will be held Friday.  Previously, the station was known as the Hauge station.  It is being operated by Leo Gates, a veteran of three years’ army service.  He served 14 months in the European theater.  Gates if the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Gates, who are on the old Eberhardt farm, six and one-half miles east of Neillsville.  He and his wife and their nine-month-old child reside in “Vets Village.”

The Neillsville-Pine Valley School district electors on Monday night reaffirmed their policy of laying aside $10,000 per year in a building fund for a new high school.  They are taking other steps to improve the educational service of the joint district and have approved a budget calling for the levy of $50,000 in taxes for the coming school year.

The question of the policy of the last two years in laying aside a fund for a high school building in the future was brought sharply into focus by Kurt Listeman who opposes the plan.  Long an out-spoken critic of the projected school on the 15-acre Dickey site near the standpipe, Listeman made his objections in a 10-minute prepared address.

Listeman moved that the $20,000 already set aside in a building fund be used for the improvement and modernization of the present school buildings.

When the proposition of adding $9,990 to the budget for the next year and earmarking it for a series F government bond for the building fund, the motion was carried by a voice vote, only one negative vote was given.

Rural school costs in Clark County last year ranged from $46 to $197 per pupil in average daily attendance, according to a report of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.

These costs compare with the highest in the state, in a district in Iowa County, amounting to $472 per pupil and a low of $40, in a district in Portage County and a district in Shawano County.

One-fourth of the Clark County rural school districts reported per pupil costs of $79 or less, while one-fourth reported per pupil costs of $118 and more, the Alliance stated.

Preliminary work on a new National Guard garage near the water pumping station is expected to get underway this week.

Col. Harry G. Williams, property and disbursing officer of Camp Douglas, has advised Mayor Victor J. Anderson that he will be in the city this week with an architect who will lay out the plot.  The Architect will spot the location of the garage, which will be built this summer and fall.  It will also be the location of a (an) armory building which may be erected on the site some time in the future.

Here last week, Colonel Williams expressed the hope that the pouring of concrete footings and possibly a floor, for the garage would be started next week.  A subcontractor is now doing a similar job at Wisconsin Rapids and the intention is that he shall come to Neillsville immediately upon finishing the work there.

The plot upon which the new National Guard garage will be built is located east of the water pumping station, on what is known as the “Circus Ground.”  An area of approximately 208,000 square feet is being deeded to the state for this purpose.

According to local understanding, the garage is to be set back well toward the river in order to provide as much space toward the road as possible for an armory building, should one be built in the future.  The expectation is that the garage will be completed before winter.

The garage will be used to house equipment for a National Guard service company, which is expected to be organized here after the first of next year.  Equipment is expected to include 32 trailers, 49 trucks ranging in size from one-quarter ton (Jeeps) to two-and-one-half tons and two tank recovery vehicles.

The table of organization for the new National Guard Company here calls for a total of 143 officers and enlisted men.  Eight officers, four warrant officers and 131 enlisted men are provided.

Given good weather, a crowd of 700 or more rabid Clark County baseball fans are expected to gather at the Clark County fairgrounds on Sunday afternoon to watch Neillsville and Loyal baseball teams in the crucial Cloverbelt league test of the season’s schedule.

The Loyal Blackhawks, leading the eastern division of the league, will be accompanied by a large contingent of fans, according to advisers from that city.

They hope to see their team put the finishing touches on what they expect will be the divisional title and land them in the east-west playoffs.

Neillsville, in second place by virtue of an 11 to 3 victory Sunday over Withee, has handed Loyal its only defeat in league competition this season. That was a ding-dong game with a 1 to 0 victory at Loyal on June 9.

By winning Sunday, the local “Vets” can draw even up with Loyal in the loss column; but Loyal, having played one more game than the Vets, will retain a nominal lead in the league standings.  The Vets will have a chance to even it up when they play a postponed game with Curtiss.  Both teams, with ordinary good fortune, should pull through the rest of the season without too much difficulty.

The Vets will face Wally Hribar, 20-year-old Loyal mound ace, who hurled a no-hit, no-run game against Stetsonville last Sunday.  A southpaw, Hribar collected 14 strikeouts and issued one walk while hurling his classic.  Up to the present time, Hribar has worked 77 innings, allowed 52 hits and 22 walks and has compiled a record of 100 strikeouts.

Manager Gene Christie of the Vets is planning to start Frankie Zank, local mounds man, in the Sunday classic.  Frankie handcuffed the Blackhawk sluggers in their previous meeting.  Bob Teeples, the Vets’ number one mounds man, will be on tap in the event Zank gets in trouble.

On the basis of past records, both pitchers will have their hands full, for both the Vets and the Blackhawks have been exhibiting considerable skill at the plate.  Loyal has compiled a team batting average of .290.  Six members of that team are batting over .300 and Johnny Matonich, former Neillsville mounds man, has compiled an average of .462 this season.

Against this array of talent, Neillsville has developed a group of dangerous long-range hitters.  In last week’s tilt with Withee, the Vets collected 11 hits, seven of which were for extra bases.  Harold Milbreit, second basemen who doubles behind the plate, has compiled an average .451 to date.