July 1909

Architect A. F. Billmyre was in Neillsville Friday and Saturday where he has charge of building the handsome new residence of Charles Cornelius.  Mr. Billmyre is also drawing plans for the new business block to be built in the city, which will be the home of the new Cornelius’ bank.

George Trogner has taken the contract for erecting the new Cornelius block and will do the purchasing of all materials.  He will also be hiring all the workmen.

Carpenters wanted to work on the Chas Cornelius residence; satisfactory wages.  Apply at once to George Trogner.

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It is desired that persons who are driving or autoing through the country and desire to see a fine piece of scenery, they may drive onto the track at the fairground.  The gate is shut, but is unlocked and persons then will help kill out the weeds on the racetrack by driving onto it, but please close the gate after leaving.  It will do the track good to drive on it, but remember, close the gate.  The stray cows might want to eat up the hay on the outer edge of the track that is not intended for them.

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On Wednesday, June 30, a very pretty wedding occurred at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Van Fleet of the Town of Washburn when their daughter, Dora, was united in marriage to Mr. Joseph Felser, also of Washburn.  The groom is a very bright, intelligent and industrious young man with many good qualities and a host of friends who wish him a long and prosperous life.

The bride is a bright and charming young lady.  Her lady-like appearance has won her many friends in her community.  She is also very industrious and is well fitted to take charge of a home and make it all that could be desired.

About 40 relatives and friends were present to witness the marriage.  Miss Mae Short acted as bridesmaid and her brother, Ralph as bestman.  Rev. Chapman officiated, using the ring ceremony.  After the ceremony a very fine supper was served under a large tent on the lawn, which had been put up for the occasion.  A number of useful and beautiful presents were bestowed upon the newly wedded pair.                                                      

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Louis Moh seems to be having his share of bad luck lately.  It was only about two weeks ago that he had a bad runaway in Neillsville and last week he experienced another one.  While cultivating corn the other day, his horse took fright and ran away.  Louis had the driving lines around his body and in consequence, was dragged a considerable distance, causing the fracture of several ribs and minor injuries.                                                 

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It is reported that Rev. Chapman and family, and a friend will spend several days camping in the Dells Dam vicinity.  There are a number of fine locations there-about; the objectionable feature will be the mosquitoes.

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This week a deal was closed whereby Geo Ludington sold his harness shop and brick building to W. A. Holcomb of Eau
Claire.  The consideration was $5,000.  Mr. Holcomb is an experienced harness maker, having been foreman in a large harness factory for 19 years.  He will not take possession of his property for a few weeks in order to enable him to close up business matters.  He will then move his family here and live in the flat above the store.

With the sale of the harness business, Neillsville will lose one of its most honored and trustworthy businessmen.  He has made and sold harnesses here for many years, starting when the city was a logging town.  He has the entire confidence of the whole community, as it is understood that he will make his future home elsewhere.  But in losing Mr. Ludington, Neillsville gains another clean businessman.                                                    

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Have you seen the young lady who lived with Mrs. Austin in Sydney?  She went away last Sunday, but no one knows where.  It is hoped that some day she will think of her parents and her little son.

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The Kurth Corners baseball team defeated the Pleasant Ridge team on their home diamond by a score of 7 to 6.

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Special County Fair Premiums to be given by Various Businessmen:

Neillsville Tea & Coffee Company is offering 50 cents worth of spices to the young lady who will bake the best spice cake and a sanitary drip coffee pot to the couple who will be married in front of the grandstand during the Clark County Fair.

Matt Marx - A good whip for best team of matched driving horses show at the fair.

Wisconsin Furniture Mfg. Company - A $35 bedroom suite to the couple who will get married on front of the grandstand on Friday at 2 p.m.

Mr. A. B. Marsh - To winner of pumpkin race on Saturday afternoon, half barrel of 1st Patent Flour, to second place, quarter barrel of 1st Patent flour.

Mr. A. Unger - One pair of shoes, subject to their choice, to the party displaying the best corn.

T. E. Brameld - $2 Lemonade set to person taking most premiums on vegetables.

Robert Eunson - Winner of a ¼ mile pony race, by child under 15, $2.

Gress Café - Box of bon-bons for best exhibit of mock oranges.

August F. Snyder - $2.50 hat to winner of foot race, to run 50 yards in front of grandstand Saturday afternoon.  Contestants must be 60 years old or over, 2nd prize, $1.50 shirt.

July 1954

Fifteen school reorganizations have take place in Clark County during the school year just coming to an end.  With the annual school meetings approaching, Clayton Wright, county superintendent of schools has prepared a list of the reorganizations effected and had made a statement of the prospects.

The statement indicates that the problem of reorganization will continue through the coming school year.  There are six suspended districts, which must become attached to operating districts during the next year.  Also, a project is being formulated for a union free high school in the Granton area and the county school committee has been asked to reorganize the Withee-Owen district.

The townships with reorganization effected in the past school year are listed by Mr. Wright as follow:

Fremont - Franklin School, rural, joined Cozy Corner, rural, Town Board Action

Green Grove - Atwood School, rural, joined Colby Union Free high School, County School Committee Action.

Hixon - Part of Willow Dale, rural joined Frenchtown, rural, Town Board Action

Mayville - Cleveland School, rural, joined Dorchester Public Schools, Town Board Action.

Mead - Maple Ridge, rural, joined Thorp and Greenwood Public Schools, County Committee Action.

Reseburg - Goff School, rural, joined Reseburg State Graded, Town Board Action.

Thorp - Peterson School, rural joined Stanley City Schools, Town Board Action.

Unity - Maplewoods School, rural, joined Colby Union Free high School, Referendum

Unity Willow Brook, rural, joined Spencer Public schools, School Committee Action.

Worden - Breezy Hill, rural, joined Thorp Public Schools, School Committee Action.

Unity - Part of Soo Grove State Graded, joined Colby Union Free High School, School Committee action.

Unity - Unity High School District joined Colby Union Free high School, Referendum.

Enterprise School, Marathon County, joined Colby Union Free High School, Referendum.

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The annual school meeting was held in the Loyal High School assembly at 8 p.m. Monday.  V. O. Kauffman was chairman. A levy of $34,000 was voted for the coming year.  This includes $5,000 for interest.

Albert Davel was unanimously elected to succeed himself as clerk.  The auditing committee remains the same as for the past year; V. O. Kaufman, Clyde Grambsch, and M. G. Hales.        

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Paul Manz, tall drum major of the Neillsville high School band, made himself short on a rainy night of late. He had taken refuge in a pup tent about 4½ feet long.  He tried to sleep with his arms around his knees, pulling his feet up out of the weather.  Upon that occasion Paul had no pride in his five-foot-eleven, which, topped by a white bearskin, of the band, makes him look like a seven-footer, no less.

Paul’s yearning for less length was the low spot in the experience of the three Neillsville boys who returned Sunday from a trip of 1,000 miles.  Of those thousand miles, 900 were pumped on bikes.  The boys, Paul, Skipper Lee and Jon Swenson, had estimated two full weeks for their trip.  Their friends had bantered them over what was asserted to be the impossibility of what they set out to do.  They had heard talk about their bikes not taking in, to say nothing of the boys not taking it.  But their bikes took it, with only two punctures, and the boys took it too.

But on that one occasion, Paul, and Skipper Lee did take it very wet, and Jon took it wet enough.  It was near Marquette, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  The boys had pitched their pup tents in threatening weather and Paul had stretched his jungle hammock from tree to tree.  They had packed their clothing in a nearby dry and convenient washroom, had donned night togs and T-shirts and had crawled into their sleeping bags for the night.

After a tiring day they took a short cut to bed.  Paul had his netting and canvas fastened above him, but he had let this fall loosely down, not braced apart by the usual slat supports.  In the dead of the night the rain came down in torrents.  It drenched Paul’s sleeping bag and threatened to soak Paul himself.  Beset by the downpour, Paul called to his companions in their tent.  Awake, they answered him.  Could he come in with them?  Come ahead, they said.

With the rain falling upon him, Paul worked his way out of the sleeping bag and stepped quickly but gingerly to the little pup tent, already filled to its normal capacity.  The two boys moved along and Paul crawled in.  Damp as he was, Paul worked himself into his sleeping bag.  The tent was too low and too short, and in his manipulations Paul scraped along the canvas wall of the tent.  This invited the water through the canvas, and in it came, trickling down toward Skipper and Paul.

Sardined into the little tent, the boys tried to rest, with the trickle of water building a mud puddle under Paul and Skipper, and with Paul hugging his knees to keep out of the rain.  They took this for about an hour and a-half.  The boys were glad to get up and get out of there.

At the time, this experience was nothing to laugh about, but already, in retrospect, it is falling into its place as a memory, which will persist.  The boys had other experiences which at the time they set down as more interesting and more pleasurable.  They watched the big boats go through the Soo locks at the rate of every 20 minutes; they took a boat trip on St. Mary’s River, crossing the thread of the stream into Canada and back; they entered the Canadian lock and were lifted up and let down in a small passenger boat.  All of this was interesting.  But lots of persons have seen those things; few have tried to pull six feet of boy into four and one-half feet of tent on a rainy night.

On their way east, the boys took the northern route through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  They missed dense traffic, but they also missed everything else.  For 103 miles, their longest day’s journey, they pedaled through the woods.  The wind was behind them and they really traveled one stretch of 15 miles in 40 minutes by the watch, as their best time.  In this wilderness the boys were not sure about food.  At 11:30 a.m. they came to a place in the woods where they could get a lunch.  It was early for the midday meal, but they decided to eat early rather than to chance going without.  As a fact, they did not come to food again until about 2:30 that afternoon.

It was an economical trip.  The boys took with them a total of $170.  They brought back $50.  They went a little easy at first, not being sure of what they might encounter.  But in the last two or three days, they loosened up and treated themselves with greater liberality.

Their trip took them through Wausau, Marinette, Munising, the Soo, back to St. Ignace, across the Straits, through Petoskey to Ludington, across the lake on a car ferry, and home by bike from Manitowoc.  Their actual biking time was about 10 days.  Their average per day on their bikes was 85 to 90 miles.

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Mrs. Harriet Peterson caught a 12-pound salmon on her recent visit to the West Coast.  She couldn’t bring the salmon back with her, but she did bring the blisters on her left hand, blisters which came from her fight of 20 minutes with the salmon. Mrs. Peterson was fishing in the Pacific from a boat.

The occasion for Mrs. Peterson’s trip was a visit to her sister, Mrs. E. T. Firnstahl, at Fortuna in northern California.  Mrs. Firnstahl, as a girl in Colby, was Clara Lepert.                                      

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The Inwood Dining Room in Hatfield is now under New Management of Annabelle & Harriet.  Their Specialties are: Chicken-in-the-Basket with Corn Fritters.  Also, Shrimp & Lobster Tail, Steaks!

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The Humbird Canning Company finished the pea pack on Thursday afternoon.  The yield was poor this year, but quality very good.                                                                                                      

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A big four-city playground tournament will be held on the Greenwood Public School playground Tuesday, July 27.  Youngsters from Colby, Owen, Loyal and Greenwood summer playground programs will compete.

There will be nine events and the youngsters will be divided up into two divisions.

The competing events will be: 60-yeard dash, 100-yard dash, 440-yard relay, broad jump, high jump, distance throw, baseball and softball, base circling, rope climb and sack race.

Cy Buker, Greenwood summer playground director, is the local manager of the tournament.  The Loyal playground program is under the direction of Willard Stuvetraa.  Owen’s summer program is directed by Byrl Rose and Colby’s is under the direction of Howard Kumbier.

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