Clark County Press, Neillsville,

July 18, 2007, Page 17

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

July 1877

 

Mrs. Tibbitt’s restaurant will be kept open during the night of the Fourth, and those wishing ice cream, strawberries or supper, can be accommodated at any hour.

•••••••••

Robert Ross, having purchased an extensive tract of land in Texas for the purpose of engaging in raising cattle in that state, offers for sale his real and personal property in Wisconsin.

 

Ross will offer for sale, his entire property, consisting in part of a steam saw mill at La Crosse, together with boomage grounds, dwelling house and equipment.  Also his homestead in Clark County; a farm in section 4, town 28, range 2 west, and one on section 10 of the same town and range; all pine lands owned by him in the counties of Chippewa, Jackson, Juneau and Wood, which consists of about 18,000 total acres; all personal property owned in this county, consisting of horses, mules, cattle, sheep, logging outfits, wagons, sleighs, harnesses, and such.  All of the property will be sold at a bargain to the purchaser.

•••••••••

The trotting and running horse races on the Neillsville track, July 4th, were witnessed by many interested spectators.  The trotting match between Al Brown’s horse, “Don,” and Joe Gibson’s “Buckskin,” were hotly contested.  “Don” won the first heat and Buckskin was winner of the next two.

 

The running race was not so even.  Christie’s mare, “Gray Green,” was able to get away from Charles’ horse, easily, in two straight heats.

•••••••••

Who wants to rent a dog, to be taken into the country to be kept until the Day of Judgment?  We want to let that pup, which barks in the front of the O’Neill House all night at borders as they drop in, one by one, to an honest farmer.  Then the farmer should make the pup understand that it is not right to call attention to such things, and make sure he doesn’t forget it.

•••••••••

Cash dealers can get anything from a cambric needle to a forty-horse power engine made at Brule’s shop, in this village.  Brule’ is prepared to do all kinds of blacksmithing and carriage work.

•••••••••

During the celebration at Windfall, on the Fourth of July, Mr. L. Lee was badly burned by an explosion of a pitcher of powder, which he was using to make a big noise with an anvil.  Aside from being badly burned, Mr. Lee was not seriously injured, though the pitcher was blown into fragments, one piece of which passed through Lee’s hat, barely missing his head.

 

Of all customs ever observed, that of burning powder on such occasions is the most foolish, disgusting and dangerous.  Not a Fourth has passed in the United States, since the signing of the Declaration of Independence that more or less serious and fatal accidents have not happened in its observance.  The number of people, who have been killed or crippled for life, would make a respectable army.  When will the people become convinced that the thunder of artillery and the destruction of life and property on that day caused by the absurd waste of powder, in various ways; is as hideous as it is unnecessary in manifesting patriotism, and dispense with the detestable custom?

•••••••••

A company of boys opened up a peanut stand business on the street, between Gates & Head’s business and the bank building Monday of this week.  However, the business busted up on Wednesday, liabilities not known.

•••••••••

Some of our citizens either fail to read the almanac, that good book, which tells so unmistakably when Sunday comes, or else they have no regard for that hallowed day.

•••••••••

The village of Humbird was laid out six years ago by the West Wisconsin Railroad Company, on the completion of their line to this point.  It has a population of about 400, is located in the eastern part of the Trempealeau Valley.  It has good waterpower and a good surrounding countryside.  Pine lumber has been a leading article of production and shipment from this station.  But there is a strong tendency to agriculture and the neighboring forests are yielding to the aggressive work of the pioneering farmer.  The timberlands to the south and west of the village are well sited to general farming and many fine homesteads are already well improved.

 

The beautiful Trempealeau Valley heads a little to the west of town.  Garden Valley, in the same direction, is equally attractive for the beauty of its scenery and the productiveness of its soil.  A fine school building is in the process of being built and some charming homes stand at the foot of the great bluff to the north of the town.  A fine flour mill is located in full view upon Halls Creek, with its pond, which swirls with trout.  A miniature mountain of rock is in the background, which looks down upon the village and valley.

 

The New York and New England element predominates in the village where business prospers and social life goes on.

 

July 1957

 

Did you know that Calvin Mills, superintendent of the Clark County Hospital at Owen, was the youngest county clerk in Wisconsin, at the age of 26; that he had a boyhood ambition to become an attorney or civil engineer; that he manages the largest county hospital in the state of Wisconsin with the exception of Milwaukee County; and that he was on the high school livestock judging team that took first place in state competition, judging Holstein cattle?

 

Calvin Mills was born in Weston Township, near Christie, June 27, 1906, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Claude Mills.  He was raised on the home farm, attending and graduating from the Christie rural school.  In 1925, he was graduated from Neillsville High school.  William C. Hansen, now president of Stevens Point State College, was then the principal of the Neillsville school system.

 

Calvin’s first public office was that of clerk of Weston Township, which position he entered into in April 1928.  In November 1932, he was elected Clark County Clerk.  At the age of 26, he was the youngest county clerk in Wisconsin.

 

On October 15, 1930, Calvin married Elnore Uhlman, at Neillsville, and to this union two sons and a daughter were born: Arlene in 1932; Donald in 1934 and Arlyn in 1939.

 

Interested in baseball, and with a desire to attend an occasional Braves game, Calvin has also shown an interest in basket-ball and football, which was stimulated in participation in these sports by his sons, Donald and Arlyn.

 

It seemed Calvin was destined for a life of service to his community and county and his leadership ability was early recognized when he was selected secretary of the Weston Farmers Union, served from 1930 to 1932 as secretary and manager of the Neillsville Livestock Shipping Association, which was sponsored in 1930 by the Farmers Union, and which has continued as an organization to the present time.

 

For many years, Calvin Mills served as vice president of the Clark County Red Cross, was a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church at Neillsville, and is now a member of St. John’s Lutheran Church at Withee.

 

As a youth, interested in farming and dairy cattle, Calvin was an active member and leader in 4-H Club work, and was a member of a team, along with Archie Begley and Claude Vine, which won first place in judging Holstein cattle in the state contest.  The late L. G. Kuenning was then instructor of Agriculture at Neillsville.

 

Calvin served as president of his class in the senior year, took part in oratory and debate in Neillsville High School and absorbed some worthwhile fundamentals in public speaking that helped him in the years, which followed.

 

President of the Kiwanis clubs at Neillsville and Owen, president vice president and secretary of the Wisconsin Association of Clark County hospitals, president of the Clark County Holstein Breeders’ Association, Mr. Mills served for three years on the Owen Junior Fair board, one year as chairman.

 

When the Owen Community Fire association was organized, the first organization in Clark County to serve rural areas, Calvin Mills was elected president.  This modern fire-fighting unit served Thorp, Town of Hoard, Town of Longwood, and the Clark County Hospital.

 

Prior to accepting the position as superintendent of the Clark County Hospital, Calvin Mills had taken a state civil service examination for a position with the Wisconsin Department of Taxation office, as a supervisor of assessments, standing second on the list; but the attractive offer at Owen changed his plans, and since 1945 he has engaged in a humanitarian program of serving his fellow men at the Owen hospital.

 

Under his supervision, the Clark County Hospital has been modernized, rejuvenated and brought up-to-date.  Today it is considered one of the outstanding county hospitals in Wisconsin.

 

In summarizing his management at Clark County Hospital, Mr. Mills states that he has “always loved farming and working with dairy cattle, so immediately found pleasure in supervising the farm and dairy program there.”  But as years have passed and the satisfaction of human rehabilitation has been experienced, Mr. Mills feels that he is whole-heartedly interested in the entire program and experiences real pleasure in successful farming, in rebuilding men and women into lives of usefulness and improved health, and in occasionally seeing patients re-instated to their homes again.

•••••••••

At a meeting, Monday evening, Calvary Lutheran Church was officially organized.  A constitution was adopted and the following officers were elected: president, Thomas Dorski; treasurer, Howard O. Geise; regular council members, Hilbert Naedler, Donald Braatz, Melvin Appleyard, Charles Jordahl, James Simenson and P. T. Holum.  These officers will be installed at the service next Sunday.

 

Construction of Calvary Lutheran’s new church building, on Hill Street, has begun.

•••••••••

Morris Blodgett, who has been plant manager of the American Stores Dairy Company Condensery in Neillsville, was elevated to the position of superintendent of that plant, July 1.

 

He succeeds L. R. Barton, who has been in charge of the local operation for 12 years, since the death of Roy Schmedel.  Mr. Barton has retired, and plans to spend a considerable portion of his leisure, just fishing.

 

The new plant manager under Mr. Blodgett is John Wyer, who has been employed in the plant for several years past.

 

Mr. Blodgett came to Neillsville from Fairwater, where the American Stores Dairy Co., operates another dairy plant and where it maintains headquarters.

•••••••••

Defective wiring in the attic was believed to have caused the fire, which destroyed the Pine Grove cheese factory, in the Town of Beaver six miles northeast of Loyal, about noon Monday.  Manager Elmer Meissner discovered smoke coming from a factory ventilator, indicating a fire.

 

The plant, a three-day inventory of cheese amounting to about 6,500 pounds, and about 22,000 pounds of milk was destroyed. No estimate of the substantial loss was available.

 

Milk, of the plant’s patrons, now is being hauled to another plant at Riplinger owned by the Pauly Cheese Company of Green Bay, which purchased the Pine Grove factory from George Foelsch, several years ago.

 

The Loyal rural fire department under Chief James Christensen, and a unit from Spencer succeeded preventing the spread of the fire to a three-car garage nearby.

•••••••••

Robert F. Stoll dropped his tee shot on the Neillsville Country Club’s 214-yard seventh hole, Sunday afternoon, to record the first hole-in-one on that course in its history.

 

Playing with five other golfers, Stoll used a number two iron, shooting into a slight breeze, he said.  No one could see the ball as it hit the green; but Mr. Stoll said he knew it was at least on the green.

 

The party couldn’t see the ball either, when they approached the green; but they did find an indentation where it landed, some eight or ten feet from the pin.  Mr. Stoll said he thought it had rolled on over, and went with August Selk to look for it. 

 

When they couldn’t find the ball, Mr. Stoll said he called to Atty. Donald W. Johnson, a member of the party, to look in the hole.

 

It was there.

 

Other members of the party were Henry Lukes and Gene Staffen, high school coaches, and Syd Tompkins of the Country Club staff.

 

In the recollection of many old-time golfers here, Stoll’s is the first hole-in-one ever shot on the Neillsville Country Club course; although there have been a number of near misses.  Stoll, himself, had a near miss a couple of years ago when his tee shot on the 167-yard fifth hole rolled to within three inches of the cup.

 

Only one other hole-in-one golfer in Neillsville is John W. Perkins, high school agricultural instructor, who turned the trick twice in 1931, on the old Snyder golf course at Wedge’s Creek.

 

(In recent years, there have been several hole-in-ones recorded at the Neillsville Country Club’s course, an average of 3 to 5 per year.  Either the golfers are getting better, or it’s the multitude of choices available in updated golf clubs and irons, or its new technology applied in course maintenance, or maybe it’s a combination of all three. D.Z.)

•••••••••

Radio station WCCN of Central Broadcasting, Inc., is looking forward to going on the air shortly after the first of September, Howard Sturtz, Jr., vice president and general manager of the new station, said this week.

 

The station has obtained the ground floor of the Odd Fellows building on West Fifth Street, where it will maintain studios.

 

Members of the staff, thus far, include, Mr. Sturtz; Ervin Steiger, Sales manager; Charles Marvin, former chief engineer of WOBT at Rhinelander; and Bob Johnson of Nasonville, staff announcer.  The staff is expected to number seven or eight.

 

 

The Pine Grove cheese factory, located six miles northeast of Loyal, was destroyed by fire in July 1957.  At that time, it was one of many rural cheese factories throughout Clark County; commonly known in that area as the Foelsch factory, at the time of the fire, it as owned by the Pauly Cheese Company of Green Bay.

 

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