Clark County Press, Neillsville,

March 2, 2005, Page 14

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

March 1885

 

Mr. O’Neill has introduced a new bill in the State Assembly.

 

Passing the bill would divide the Town of Colby to form the Town of Colman, from town 28, 1 west.

••••••••••

The State Senate passed, on March 17, Senator Ring’s bill granting teachers’ certificates to graduates of free high schools.  The bill failed by a tie vote to pass a short time ago, but a motion to reconsider brought it up again, with the above result.  It will meet with some opposition in the Assembly, but the committee on Education is believed to favor it and its prospect of becoming a law is very good.

••••••••••

The Merry Workers’ group will give a New England entertainment and supper at the Fourth Street Theater, April 3, for the benefit of Rev. J. D. Brothers, our esteemed Methodist minister.  The entertainment will be very good and the supper, superlative. This will give you a good social opportunity to make yourselves happy.  The admission is 10 cents for the entertainment and 50 cents for the supper.

••••••••••

Yesterday morning, Charley Breed and Frank Eyerly, while at work on their new planing mill over on the King Lot, took a lofty tumble, together.  They fell from the top of the building to the ground, some 14 feet.  No bones were fractured but Charley sprained a thumb, hurt his devoted nose and got a bump on the lower part of his body.  He had to lay off yesterday.  Eyerly hurt his back badly and is laid up for repairs.  The tumble was the result of a weak spot in the scaffold.

 

The planing mill, which they are putting up, will be ready for custom work in a very short time and will be able to do a large business during the season.  They propose to charge very moderate prices, doing the very best kind of work.  We are glad to see this, as at present there is but one planing mill.  There is a general desire to have two such institutions in this city.  The propelling power used is the same as that which was formerly used in Eyerly, Breed & Eyerly saw mill in the Town of Grant.  We wish the institution big success.

••••••••••

Charley McMillan came up from Sparta Tuesday, with a patent gate to show and sell.  McMillan used to be Monroe County sheriff, when we lived there as kids and were in the business of “cooning watermelons,” in the summer.  McMillan was a terror to us during those years.  So when we saw him the other day, our first impulse was to light out for the safety of our ma.

 

(Those of you in the younger generations probably won’t know what “cooning watermelons” means.  That was a challenge of crawling, unnoticed, into someone’s melon patch to pick a delicious-looking watermelon and then crawling back out to some undisclosed place where you enjoyed the tasty fruit.  Ask someone of the older generation if he, or she, ever “cooned melons” and they will no doubt be able to tell you a story. D.Z.)

••••••••••

School classes close this Friday for a week’s vacation.  The sidewalks are in excellent shape for marble playing and that great sport will soon begin for the season.  Soon April Fool’s day will be here and this will lend some enchantment to life for many, as it will for their victims.

••••••••••

The Board of Control of the Clark County Agricultural Society desire to lease the Fair Grounds for the next year, which will go to the highest bidder, for cash.  The Board will receive bids on April 11, at 2 p.m. at the store of Reitz & Haugen.

••••••••••

Last evening, during a flurry of snow, a flash of lightning, which was the first of the season, took a squint at the snow and then came the thunder.  It seems as though winter and summer are battling for the possession of spring.

 

March 1945

 

A profit of seventeen cents was made, in the year 1944, by the Neillsville Country Club.  This rate of profit may not accord with the popular conception of what a Country Club makes, but to the stockholders, who met Monday evening, it was a satisfying performance.  To them, seventeen cents looked a lot better than $1,700 in the red, which was the operating result of many a golf club in 1944.  Indeed, some golf clubs are going under during this World War II.

 

To those interested in the Country Club, it looked one year ago as though the year 1944 would be critical.  With the war taking men away and reducing the playtime of all, to next to nothing, could the interest be maintained, and could the revenues be kept up to the necessary expenses?  Also could the course be maintained, for a golf course requires lots of manicuring, and it goes to ruin if that is neglected.  The answer to these questions was in the lap of the gods throughout the year 1944; it was also in the lap of the Neillsville people who are devoted to their beautiful golf course, and who want to make sure that it is not to become a casualty of the war.

 

As the stockholders met Monday evening, it was evident that one man was primarily responsible for the leadership, which has kept the golf course going in the war period as a vital asset to Neillsville.  That man was William A. Campman, who has been president of the club.  To him, the presidency was no empty honor.  He led the group of members who used the scythes upon the weeds and who trimmed the trees.  Alternating with him in the presidency and enthusiastically devoted to the course, has been R. E. Schmedel, who during his incumbency put much time and thought into the club’s affairs.

 

Another man who has had an exceedingly important part in keeping the County Club in the black, with a profit of 17 cents, is Ray Strebing, the grounds keeper.  With manpower short, Ray had been a one-man crew, doing the work of two men and doing it well. The course has been maintained right up in style, an accomplishment, when compared with what is happening to many golf courses.

 

At the annual meeting, Mr. Campman told his friends, in effect, that he had had all he could take.  He positively declined to carry on the responsibility of the presidency.  He was reelected to the board, the other members of which are Frank Hepburn, Otto Zaeske, Hugh Haight and George Zimmerman.  So the directors, faced with Mr. Campman’s refusal to serve further, elected Mr. Zimmerman to the presidency.  The other offices were filled thus: Vice-president Frank Hepburn; secretary, Hugh Haight; treasurer, Otto Zaeske.

••••••••••

A Youth Center has been set up in Granton, in the building formerly occupied by the Granton Herald.  The Ladies Aid, of the Methodist Church, has purchased the building.  It has been reconditioned by local donations of labor and materials.  The total donation amounts to $177.

 

The Center is open Saturday evenings from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m.  A juke-box provides music for dancing.  Ping-pong and games are available.  Food and soft drinks are served at non-profit prices.

 

The activity is in the hands of the young people, under the guidance and chaperonage of Mrs. Robert Wellman.  The president is Beverly Turner; vice-president, Elsie Spaete; secretary-treasurer, Dolores Storm; food, Pat Paulson; business Robert Spry and Marvin Garbisch.

 

The attendance each Saturday evening is about 40 young people.  Returning servicemen have found the Center an excellent place to meet old friends.

••••••••••

The Galloping Club and the Stitch and Chatter Club are enjoying a joint meeting today, March 8, at the Walter Brenner home, in Eidsvold. Indications are that it will be a lively and valuble (valuable) session.  The ladies will sew for the Galloping Club and all members of both clubs will pay a dime for lunch.  What the ladies of the Stitch and Chatter Club get out of it is a chance to stitch and chatter.

 

Anton Fisher has bought a one and a-half story house.  It is located five miles north and three miles west of Thorp, is about four years old and has four rooms on the lower floor with space for two rooms upstairs.  The Fishers will move the house to their lot on the east side of Thorp.

••••••••••

Mrs. William Neville, Jr., has purchased the Vincent home on East Ninth Street, which is now occupied by the Forrest Thompson family.  Mrs. Neville will take possession of her new home about April 1.  Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and family will move to the Marth house on the same street, which they recently bought.

••••••••••

Eight or ten families in Neillsville will be without homes on April 1, as is the outlook seen by Mayor Anderson. The Mayor is hearing tales of woe from house hunters, as are others.  The housing situation is the tightest known to the city of Neillsville.

 

The situation is illustrated by the plight of Dale Armitage, the city clerk.  Mr. Armitage, given notice that he must vacate on April 1, bought a residence on West Street, just back of the Masonic temple.  He bought it definitely for his own occupancy, but found that the occupants were Mr. and Mrs. William Stevens, elderly persons who would have difficulty in re-locating.  He has been trying to find something for them, but has not yet succeeded.  The Armitages are living in a house on North Hewett, bought by Mrs. Minnie Bardell for her own occupancy and she cannot very well move from where she is until the Armitages move out.

 

Another family definitely in uncertainty is the Earl Ruedys.  Mr. Ruedy is a member of the faculty of the Neillsville High School.  He has been living in the cottage next to the hospital.  The cottage had been promised to Mrs. Florence Lipke, who cooks at the hospital, and Mr. Ruedy was given notice.  He has been house hunting for a month, unsuccessfully up to Monday night, at least.  The situation was so discouraging that the Ruedys were then at the point of storing their furniture, with Mrs. Ruedy and the children going temporarily to live at her parents home.

 

Another family, which is feeling the pinch, is Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Spencer, who have been residing on Emery Street.

 

These particular situations may find a solution, but they are only illustrations of the difficulty.  There are evidently more families than houses and some must go inadequately housed.

 

Because of this difficulty, Mayor Anderson has induced the Federal Housing Administration to designate Neillsville as an H-3 conversion area.  The effect of this designation is to secure the right to reconstruct and recondition the interior of existing buildings, so that they may be fitted for residential use.  The first local building to be affected by this change is the structure on South Hewett Street owned by Arthur (Snowball) Meyer.  The upstairs portion of this building is being made over into apartments.

••••••••••

T/Sgt. Walter J. Korth, of Granton has been awarded his third Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal “for meritorious achievement in aerial combat.”  His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Emil E. Korth, reside in Granton, where the young flier graduated from Granton High School with the class of 1942.  He is a veteran of 25 bombing missions over Germany, including such vital targets as Berlin, Hamburg and Magdeburg.

 

He is an engineer gunner with the 468th Bombardment group, which received official commendation from Lt. Gen. James H. Doolittle, Commanding Eight Air Force, for combat achievement on its first mission, an attack against Berlin.  It was the longest initial assault ever flown by any unit in the history of the European theater and one of the heaviest daylight bombardments of the German capital on record.

 

Sgt. Harold R. Finnegan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Chester F. Finnegan of Granton, was recently awarded the third Oak Leaf Cluster to the Air Medal at his Eighth Air Force base in England.  The award presentation was given by Lieut. Col. William J. Wrigglesworth, of Eau Claire, Wis.

 

Second Lieut. Marvin A. Thorson of Withee has arrived overseas and has been assigned to the AAF’s oldest fighter group, the Fifteenth.  He will pilot a P-38 fighter.  The group was organized in World War I and was the first to arrive in the European theater in this war.  It has received three Distinguished United citations.

 

Cpl. Grant W. Sloniker is now serving in the Philippine Islands, according to word received at his home in Greenwood.  Cpl. Sloniker is with the Fourteenth Army Corps.  He entered army service August 19, 1942 and has been overseas more than 16 months.

 

Pfc. Herbert C. Henchen, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Henchen of Neillsville has just been awarded the Philippines Liberation ribbon.  He is with the 151st Infantry and took a hand in the surprise landing on the west coast of Luzon.  He has been overseas more than a year.

 

First Lieut. Verland Lakosky, of Loyal, has been recommended for the Distinguished Flying Cross.  He has already been awarded the Air Medal and four Oak Leaf Cluster awards.  These awards have come to him in the many flights over Germany.  It is now known that he took part in the effort to get supplies to the paratroopers who were isolated for eight days at Arnhem in Holland.  In this effort, Lieut. Lakosky said, “I flew my bomber at tree-top level and could see the delight on their faces as we passed over them.”  The Liberator bomber, of which he was pilot, showed many holes in the fuselage from small arms.

 

Lieut. Lakosky took part in many raids on Germany’s oil refineries and ammunition dumps, especially at Cologne.  His longest mission was 8 ½ hours over Munich.

 

“We could tell how important a particular target was to the Germans by the amount of flak they put up,” said Lakosky, “Enemy flak was deadly enough, causing us once to return to our base on 1 ½ engines.”

 

Neillsville relatives of Ernest Gaden have received V-mail from him, stating that he has arrived safely in France.  Gaden has also served in the Aleutian Islands.

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Stelloh’s Implement was located on the northwest intersection of Grand Avenue and Fifth Street for several years.  In the late 1800s, that area of Grand Avenue was the site of livery barns and blacksmith shops.  The old Stelloh building was razed in 1953, making way for a new IGA grocery store.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Roberts’ family collection)

 

 


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