Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

March 12, 2008, Page 20

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Linda Cottrell-Sanders & Prepared by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled and Contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

March 1878

 

When a fellow comes to town and hitches his team of horses on the street for several hours, should the fellow get mad because a neighbor puts his team into a barn and feeds them at his own expense?

•••••••••

A little bit of a row last Saturday afternoon, in which a little man had his thumb badly bitten by a big fellow, is the first indication we have had in this village that the logging boys are returning from the woods.  Such action was worse than their throwing their money away by investing it in bad whiskey.

 

The streets have been full of the “boys” who have returned from their fruitless labor in the woods to settle with their more unfortunate employers.  It has been hard work making ends meet and in some instances the men have been asked to accept a reduction.  In most instances they have been found ready to divide losses with the employer, knowing that he had done his best.

•••••••••

The bridge over Black River, in the Town of Levis, which has been considered unsafe for some time, proves to have been a dangerous trap, as a portion of it gave way last Friday, just as a heavily loaded team and wagon had passed over it.  Fortunately, there were no injuries.  The structure has been repaired, somewhat, since that time, but still thought to be unsafe.  The town authorities have posted a notice to the effect that the bridge has been condemned and that parties crossing it do so at their own risk.

•••••••••

Mr. Albert Brown, one of the best known and most popular loggers on the Black River, went into voluntary bankruptcy today.  His failure is the direct result of the capricious winter just passed.  Mr. Brown had taken some very heavy contracts and went into the woods early with eight camps, employing over two hundred men, who have been practically idle all winter.  His liabilities are about $60,000, and his assets, figured down to selling value, are about $30,000.  Al has the sympathy of every one and his misfortune can never deprive him of the general esteem in which he has been held.  He will turn out the last dollar to his creditors, but he will still have a capital left in honor and energy that will in good time make a rich man of him again.

 

(The year 1878 went down in history as the worst logging winter in Clark County, due to lack of snow.  For many years after, local residents made reference to the ‘Al Brown’ winter. D.Z.)

 

The Independent News gives the following account of W. T. Price’s logging operations this season.  There are others in this section that has done much worse, though on a smaller scale:

 

“The expense of Senator W. T. Price for this winter’s logging operations exceeds $40,000 up to this time.  He made calculations on banking 25,000,000 feet of logs and will fall short about 18,000,000 feet.  He has 15,000,000 feet in skids to lay over for another year, if not destroyed by fire.”

•••••••••

Owing to the sudden appearance of spring, the maple sugar crop in this county is as complete a failure as the lumber business has been. Very little maple syrup has been brought to market, which does not begin to supply the home demand. As trifling matter as this may seem, many farmers have depended upon their sugar bushes to supply maple syrup to sell and help them through the expenses of the spring.

•••••••••

St. Patrick’s Day was made noticeable in this place by a display of green and yellow ribbons.  There were no collisions, however.  The nearest that came to trouble was when a genuine son of the Emerald Isle espied a blue ribbon on Tommy Nichols.  He cross-questioned Tom as to his nativity and was assured that the latter was a genuine Irishman.  Looking tom over a moment, he says: “Faith if yees be an Irishman, as I be one too.”

•••••••••

A team of horses belonging to Charles Keith took a promenade around the square on their own accord, last Friday evening, to the tune of “Whoa!” by all bystanders. They were stropped before damage, but the lesson is to be learned once more, that it is unwise to leave a team standing unhitched.

•••••••••

It seems to be the intention of the temperance people of this town to make the temperance question an issue at the coming spring election.  By reference to a law passed at the last session of the legislature, which we have noticed elsewhere, it will be seen that it is not necessary to nominate candidates with reference to this question, as it can be settled directly by a vote of the people.

 

March 1938

 

Orders continue to come in for Clark County maple syrup, guaranteed to be pure and grade No. 1 as handled through the office of the county agent.  The new maple syrup season will soon be at hand again and it looks as though the coming season will be one of the best yet for Clark County producers provided the crop is up to other years, which it likely will be.

 

A recent order for 78 gallons came from the head office of one of the large railroads at Chicago.  Recently also two orders came from Spokane, Wash., one order of eight gallons from Anaconda, Montana and a nationally known company at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, states that next December it is planning to send out hundreds of Christmas gifts of maple syrup.  Many companies are also sending assorted gifts for Christmas, which includes maple syrup, honey, cheese and other Wisconsin products.

•••••••••

The Model Laundry of Neillsville is showing a gratifying growth and is housed in one of the neatest and best equipped laundry buildings to be found in a small city in the state.  Besides the various types of laundry work handled, there is also a dry cleaning service.

 

During the last three months of 1937, the laundry used 177,325 gallons of water, or 59,000 gallons a month, which should assure the utmost cleanliness in washing. In fact the laundry lives up to the motto of returning clothing “surgically clean.”  Clothes are washed without squeezing or strain. 

 

Damp wash for families is a service so cheap at 4’ per pound, after the first 11 pounds at 49’ that many find is cheaper than doing washings at home.

•••••••••

A. C. Wagner’s planning on opening a new and larger restaurant in the former Balch building on Hewett Street, north of his present location.

 

Blue prints have been drawn for a dining room 23 by 45 feet, kitchen in the middle of the building and a tap room at the west end with side entrance where plate lunches would be served also.  Mr. Wagner, his wife, three sons and daughter have been successfully operating their present restaurant for a number of years.

 

(The new location was on the northwest corner of Hewett & 6th Street.).

•••••••••

Orders have come through from Washington DC for the abandonment of eight more CCC camps in Wisconsin as part of a closing up of 291 camps in the United States to bring expenses within the budget allowed.  This will leave about 1,200 camps in the United States still in operation. The new order involves the dismissal of about 3,000 camp officers and civilian officials.

 

Camps, which will be closed in Wisconsin, are those located in Independence, Tomahawk, Hayward, Laona, Phelps, Grandview, Minocqua and Mt. Horeb.  It will be recalled that the CCC camp at Globe was closed a short time ago, crippling forest fire protection in Eau Claire and Clark counties.

•••••••••

One of the two last dray horse teams has passed out of the picture in Neillsville, after many years. A. Hauge & Son have retired their team.

 

Neillsville still has one dray team left, which is used in the delivery business, being that of the Tibbett Ice & Fuel Co., a heavy well-matched team of black horses.

•••••••••

A crowd of about 900 people from many places in this section of the state took in the big wrestling matches at Thorp, last Thursday night.  In the main event, Bronko Nagurski, 234 pounds, claiming to be world’s champion, tossed Big Chief Jennings out of the ring among the spectators and then slammed him down on the matt immediately afterwards to win.  It took Ed Krul 22 minutes to polish off John Sampson and George Sauer pinned Adolph Haavisto down in 24 minutes of rough wrestling.

•••••••••

The officers of the Neillsville Country Club were reelected at a meeting of the board of directors held Monday evening, being as follows: president, Roy E. Schmedel; vice-president, Otto Zaeske; secretary, Ray P. Munger; and treasurer, Everett Skroch, Francis Welsh is a member of the board of directors.  At the next meeting, on April 4, the help for the season is to be hired.

 

A meeting for all stockholders and golf enthusiasts is to be held Monday, April 11, when committees for tournaments, greens, memberships and planning are to be elected.  The women also are invited to be present and elect committees to look after social nights and other events.

 

The County (Country) Club had a wonderful year in 1937, which besides sale of stock of $5,500 took in enough to make the year’s receipts of $7,413.98, enabling the club to pay all bills and debts and come out with a cash balance of $23.70.

•••••••••

Nearly 10,000 catalogs, weighing 3 ½ pounds each, were distributed in Clark County this week, making a total of over 30,000 pounds or better than 15 tons.  Sears-Roebuck distributed theirs by truck at local post offices, from where they went out by mail, while Montgomery Ward had a crew of men make house-to-house deliveries.  The cost of this advertising to the two catalog houses was over $1,000. They also use large advertising spaces in papers where they have stores.

•••••••••

The Neillsville Standard Service station has installed a new combination oil pump and computer at its station at South Hewett and Fifth Streets.

•••••••••

Dynamite charges were set off in Rock Creek near Greenwood to blast out the ice near the Soo Line Bridge, threatened by a big jam and flood. The Black River, west of Greenwood, was the scene of an ice jam that backed water up for over two miles.

•••••••••

A $500 stamp, the first seen by many people, made its appearance on an innocent looking document at the office of Register of Deeds Henry E. Rahn, last week.  The stamp is a small sticker, bearing the likeness of Alexander Hamilton, first secretary of the treasury.

 

The document, on which the internal revenue stamp appeared, was a trust indenture for the sum of $500,000 given by the J. B. Inderrieden Co., owners of canning factories, to the Harris Trust and Savings Bank of Chicago.  A $500 stamp was affixed to papers filed in each county, including besides Clark, also Barron and Polk counties in Wisconsin and a number in Illinois.

•••••••••

A crew of men from the Humbird section has been traveling by truck to Hay Creek, north of Tioga, where they are brushing 20 acres of land, which will be flooded for the new lake to be created by a dam that will be constructed at that point.  (The project was for what is now Rock Dam Lake. D.Z.)

•••••••••

Several Dane County farmers, unwilling to scarp their old family cars merely because they became outmoded, are converting them into useful pieces of farm machinery.  By taking out the car engine for the power unit and combining it with a used truck transmission, a considerable number of farmers are reported to have made farm tractors at very small cost.  Such tractors, they find, are suitable for doing such work as plowing, disking, harrowing, and for pulling binders and mowers.

•••••••••

The Lakeshire Cheese Company in Loyal will cease to take in milk after March 31, 1938, according to notices given patrons and drivers, last week.

 

No official announcement has been made by Lakeshire officials up to this time, as to their future plans for the plant.

 

The Lakeshire plant is one of the largest in the state.  It is reported that because the plant in Loyal is not receiving enough milk is the reason for the action taken by the Lakeshire officials.

•••••••••

Notice – Dogs and chickens must be kept in your own yard.  Any dogs or chickens, which stray from the owners’ yard, are a nuisance and the owner thereof will be arrested for this offense.

 

This is the only warning I will issue and any complaints I receive after this notice will be followed by arrests. Save your money and keep you (your) dogs and chickens in your own yard.

 

By order of Fred Rossman, Neillsville Chief of Police

•••••••••

Fire swept over a 70-acre tract of marshland, Sunday, in the Town of Levis, south of Riverside near the mouth of Wedges Creek.  Allen Covell, Clark County forest ranger, and Jas. Churchill, fire ranger of Pray directed the CCC group from City Point and local volunteers in the work of fighting the fire.  Too often fishermen and others are careless with camp fires, cigarettes, and such, feeling that this land is worthless, but therein lays the secret of the great loss of soil fertility and the ability of soil to hold moisture, which serves its purpose even on the poorer lands.

A new gymnasium, left in the photo, was built onto the Greenwood High School in 1939 through a PWA project.  On completion of the building, a sign was posted in front, which read, “P.W.A. Federal Emergency, Administration of Public Works, School Addition Project of Wis., 1650#.”  Art Christie, who lived in Greenwood, was one of the men who worked on the building project.  In the early 1940s, either the Eau Claire or Chippewa Falls high school used the new Greenwood gym for a basketball tournament, because at that time it had the largest floor and seating capacity of any gym in West Central Wisconsin.

€€€€€€€€€€€€

 

 


© 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