December 1917

County Clerk Ole Anderson is superintending a job of logging, which Oscar Youker is doing in the courthouse yard.  A number of the shade trees are being cut out as there is too much shade for a good lawn. The wood will be used to keep the courthouse warm this winter and help out in the high cost of heating.

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A 100-acre farm, 3 ½ miles north of Neillsville with a new cement basement barn, silo, fruit bearing trees, good house with cellar, $500 cash, balance to suit buyer.  Chas. Scholte, Neillsville

Also, For Sale: 12-acre farm, near the city limits of Neillsville with a two-story brick house, large barn and other out-buildings, $1,500 cash, balance on first mortgage to suit buyer. Chas. Scholte, Neillsville

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When you need livery or auto service, call Dresden Livery. It isn’t a trading barn, nor rags, rubber or junk barn, but strictly an auto or team livery.

A livery that has one price for all and that price is right.  It’s a livery that believes in safety first, service always. The livery that leads; others try to follow. Dresden’s Reliable Livery; Phone, House: Black 193; Barn 37.

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In the Christie area Clinton Asplin, Will Joyce, Earl Holt, Ed Joyce, Roy Sischo, Ernest Kelch and Irvin Young were among the number to bring home deer this hunting season.             

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Cash Eide has sold his fine farm in the Town of York to a Mr. Elmhorst, a gentleman who comes from out-of-state, and has moved to the farm. All the livestock, machinery and such, passed on to the new owner of the place and Mr. Eide moved to Maple Works last Monday.

Mr. Eide retires from the strenuousness of farm life, after a long and successful career, during which he accumulated means amply sufficient to enable him to spend the balance of his days as he chooses. For some 30 years he has been a prominent citizen of the Town of York and has represented it on the county board and in other capacities. Twenty years ago he took a canvass of the Town of York, and recalls that there were 200 voters, and states that but about 50 of those are now left. Thirteen years ago he visited his old home in New York State.  Just why Cash doesn’t move to Neillsville is not yet explained, but possibly he wants to stay near the old farm.                  

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Sixty-three thousand deer hunters in the state of Wisconsin; this figure has been given out by the conservation commission as the total of deer tags sold this fall.

Upwards of 160,000 hunting licenses have been issued; this year, for the first time, the expedient was tired of requiring deer hunters to purchase an extra tag in addition to their hunting license; which cost 10 cents.  Obviously, only those intending to hunt deer paid attention to the extra tag.                                  

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Knorr & Rausch of Granton have appointed Kearney Davis salesman in charge of the new Ford warehouse and garage in this city, with Davis taking charge Monday morning. The trade throughout the county will be supplied from here and Mr. Davis, who is well known here, and a popular and pushing young businessman, is a most desirable addition to Neillsville’s business circles.

The solid brick and cement building is very nearly finished, the open fall weather having greatly favored construction work.                                                                                                          

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The new garage on Fifth Street is a much better looking affair than was the old Reddan House that used to occupy that site and it is a great advance from Jim McCenahn’s white goose to a Ford auto.

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Nothing can afford more permanent delight than the gift of an Eastman Kodak or camera.  Prices range from $2.50 to $25.00 at Sniteman’s.                                                                             

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Monday M. Hoesly’s team ran away and during the incident, the residents of Fifth Street thought that there was a young cyclone loose among them.  The team ran amuck through backyards, stopping for nothing.  Emil Glopf had taken refuge in a small out building, which was in the path of the team and they ran into it, tipping it over, Glopf and all.  When the cyclone had passed, Glopf emerged from the wreckage considerable mussed up and with the bewildered expression on his face, which indicated that for a time he had thought that a Zeppelin had bombarded the first line trenches.

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Loyal has a new physician in the person of Dr. W. A. Seaman, formerly of Dalton, Wis.  He has purchased the Dr. Fuchs property.                                                                                                      

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Hundreds of thousands of American soldiers are now in France, and the boys at Waco, Texas, will soon go overseas. We who stay at home should help them all we can by joining the Red Cross.

It is fair proposition in times like these, in a war crisis, to lay aside party lines and all support the administration as patriotic Americans.  It is also a fair proposition to call into consultation in a prominent way and make use of tried and unquestionably capable men of all parties.                                         

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Three Chili boys: Herbert McNaul, Roy Breseman and Geo Allen went to Neillsville last week to take the mail carrier’s examination. There is a vacancy, as Charlie Lindow has resigned as carrier.  Herbert McNaul is hauling the mail at present.

December 1952

The congregations of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church of Greenwood and the Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Longwood held a Mission Festival at the Longwood church Sunday. The Rev. Joseph B. Shefveland of Rochester, Minn., was speaker in the morning. The speaker at the afternoon service was the Rev. J. N. Otte, a missionary in Zululand. A potluck dinner was served at noon.                                                                                      

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Neillsville’s Radio-Dispatched Taxi Service takes great pride in reaching its 2^nd Anniversary, under the ownership of Bill Kapfer during which it has given more than 150,000 accident-free miles of service to Neillsville residents.

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Father Peter J. Leketas is coming to Neillsville as the priest of St. Mary’s parish.  He is expected here Thursday, coming from Cadott.  He will relieve Father Peter Zic, who has been caring for the parish, pending a permanent appointment.  Father Zic took over when illness forced Father Michael Keinhofer to give up his work.

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The new garage of Pine Valley was formally opened Monday evening, December 8.  It was made a social occasion, with dancing in the garage itself and card games in the town hall.  Lunch was served.

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An empty jail is the unique Christmas present, which Clarence Gorsegner, district attorney, hopes to give Sheriff and Mrs. Frank Dobes. With the help of various other jurisdictions and with a good boost from the people of Clark County, he believes that he can make this present pan out.  In that case Mr. and Mrs. Dobes will be able to celebrate upon a family basis, and will not be obliged to feed persons who are behind the bars.

The thinning out was on the way early this week.  The jail held five Monday, but was down to one by Tuesday night.

Two prisoners, who had served time here for a beer theft in the Town of Sherwood, have now been gathered up by the Milwaukee police on other charges.  There were also three other prisoners serving time for various charges, one who will be gathered up by the FBI and the other two will have served their time, ready to leave before Christmas.

Now the kink in all that is whether the rest of the population will behave and leave the jail pleasantly empty.  Mr. Gorsegner asks the cooperation of everybody to this end.  He really wants to give Sheriff and Mrs. Dobes the empty jail for Christmas and this can be done if everybody works at it.

It may surprise the people of Clark County to know that an empty jail is really a boom to the sheriff.  He is paid for feeding prisoners, but he can’t get rich at it, and he and Mrs. Dobes much prefer that all the people of Clark County eat their Christmas dinner in the bosom of their families.                              

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Marriage Licenses -

George Andrew Wolf, Thorp, Donnell Marsensic Anisck, Willard, married at Hatley December 6

Clara Zank, Pine Valley, Rufus Karl, Town of Weston, to be married at Rice Lake

Catherine Froeba, Loyal, Ronald Grambort, Milwaukee, to be married at Loyal December 13

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The 90th birthday of J. D. Elmendorf of Thorp was celebrated in Neillsville on December 4.  Fifteen relatives gathered with his granddaughter, Bonnie Patrick, in her cabin on Division Street.

At the age of 90 Mr. Elmendorf has an active mind, and recalls many events of the early history of Clark County.

Mr. Elmendorf was born December 4, 1862, in Hebron, Jefferson County, Wisconsin.  He came up to Unity at the age of 14, and got a job on the dam at Hemlock, which was then the first dam in the series owned by the Black River Improvement Company. This dam backed up a large pool of water, which was released for the drives, carrying the logs with it.  This method of getting the logs down to Onalaska and La Crosse was used until about the end of the nineteenth century.

In the spring of 1881 Mr. Elmendorf purchased 80 acres of land in the town of Thorp, half a mile west of the city of Thorp on what was then the turnpike but what is now Highway 29.  He paid $9 per acre for this land. He built a house on this farm in 1887, which is still standing. He farmed there for 40 years, until 1927; then rented the land for 14 years and finally sold it in 1951.

Mr. Elmendorf was in Neillsville on July 4, 1881 when the first train came over the trestle west of the city.

Mr. Elmendorf drove a team of oxen for Nyron Withee when steel ties were laid for the railroad in Thorp, and pulled stumps in preparation for laying the main street of Withee.

Mr. Elmendorf was married in 1887 to Eliza Alger.  She died in 1918. There were six children, of whom four are still living, as follows: Maude, Mrs. Frank Schultze, Thorp; Harold, Seattle, Wash.; Cletus, Auburn, Wash.; Bernard, Woodinville, Wash.  He has 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

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Hills to slide upon, was the most important question before the city council Tuesday evening.

The city fathers did talk about some other things, like work on the new water plant, but any kid will tell you that such a matter sinks into insignificance when compared to a hill to slide on.

The kink in this hill business, it appeared, was the danger involved in using hills like that of Oak Street on the South side.

The members of the council discussed various hills, which might be made available with the minimum of danger. Some hills, it was reported, had been viewed by Mayor Foster and Police Chief Drescher.

The upshot of it was that the whole matter was handed over temporarily to the park board; with the hope the board would make specific recommendations.                                                         

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The banks of Clark County urge you to prepare now for Planting Trees in 1953 as part of a well-rounded Soil Conservation Program on Your Farm.  Order forms for tree seedlings will be available at our local banks, along with application forms for the use of a tree planter.                                                                                                      

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It was 36 years ago, in the spring of 1916 that a young man by the name of Ralph Short, of Neillsville, walked into Norman Rausch’s place of business in Granton to purchase a new automobile.  This was a big day in Ralph’s life, because he picked out a brand new, shiny black 1916 Model T Ford automobile. 

Ralph laid out $500 hard-earned dollars, which marked the bill of sale “Paid in Full,” and Ralph drove his newest and most-prized possession home.

Mr. Short tells us that his first long trip with the Model T took him to Camp Douglas. Thirty-six years ago this could not be exactly termed a pleasure cruise, as it is today; for the roads were mere sand trails, hewn through brush. The old Model T took Ralph there-and-back without serious difficulty. Even at that early date, when Ralph entered into the Ford Family, he knew that the name of Ford meant reliability and dependability in automobile transportation.

Mr. Short had chosen Fords ever since. Records at Svetlik Motor Company show that Mr. Short bought a new Model T in 1922 from the Byse Garage in Neillsville, a predecessor to Svetlik Motor Co.  He has continued an unbroken string of Ford ownership by buying a new 1935 V-8 Ford, which gave him 14 years’ service.  Then he bought a 1949 Ford Tudor Custom from Svetlik Motor Co.

Ralph again traded in 1950, and now is taking delivery on the 1953 Ford custom line.  He has given his Fords real tests through his work as a county PMA official, with which he has been connected for the last 10 years and, at the same time, through 10 years of selling insurance.

Adv. Svetlik Ford Co.

(Short’s Model T Ford story brings back my childhood memories of a neighbor’s Model T coupe.

It was during the winter of 1936-37 when we lived in southeastern South Dakota.  It was a record year of over 120 inches of snow in that area, some which thawed after the early snowfalls.  However most of the snow accumulation stayed, blown by the strong westerly winds that came across the prairie, piling it into solid snowdrifts along any objects in its path; roads were impassable.  An area snowplow maintained clearing snow on the federal and state highways, only.

In late February, a neighbor who needed some staple food items, and owned a green Model T coupe, planned to drive to Artesian, seven miles from his farm.  He asked my dad to ride along if he also needed a few provisions and to bring along a shovel.  The Model T was light in weight, so Frank thought he should be able to drive it over the drifts without breaking through. They drove cross-country to save mileage, as the barbed wire fences and posts were buried under the snowdrifts.  They made their way up and down over the drifts, similar to riding on a roller coaster.  Their trip to and from town went without needing shovels, being able to drive over the packed snowdrifts, as the wind and freezing temperatures had frozen a solid trail. DZ)

A 1910 view taken from the upper floor of Clark County’s second court house building, looking west with the Presbyterian Church on the far left and First National Bank building in the center.

(Photo courtesy of Steve Roberts’ collection)

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