Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

February 24, 2016 Page 13

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

February 1911

 

Mr. A. J. Flint of York Township is preparing to write a book on the troubles of “batching it.”  His wife is out west on a visit, and last Saturday night he drove to town to get a supply of baked goods and other eatables.  Before he started home, someone stole the whole batch out of his cutter and as the stores were closed when he discovered his loss, he had to go home empty handed and depend on the charity of his neighbors.   

•••••••••

Some parties from Black River Falls have rented the Jesse Lowe building next to Woelffer’s drug store and will put in a bowling alley there, starting next week.                                                         

•••••••••

A Minneapolis orchestra will give one of the finest dances of the season at the Granton Opera House Feb. 21.  All are cordially invited.                                                                                        

•••••••••

Will Poate and the other boys at the tin shop have just completed a pure maple sap tank for Fred Garber of Granton.  It is made of galvanized iron and will hold 26 barrels of sap.  Profiting by experience they built it outdoors to avoid taking out the side of the shop.                                                                                                

•••••••••  

The Neillsville Hotel - This is a comfortable dollar-a-day house; good rooms, good meals and good service.  Board by the day or week, Patronage solicited.  Sal F. Jaseph, Prop.                              

•••••••••

Last Thursday, this peaceful city was startled by the shriek of a steam whistle down on Depot Street.  Citizens rushed out to discover the cause of the alarm.  Various theories were advanced as to what made the nose; some thought the furniture factory had arrived, and others thought it was the new Condensery; still others thought it was that Alex Holverson had got a new record for his phonograph, which played a steam whistle as a part of the tune.  It was soon found however, that they were all wrong.  George Evans who runs a blacksmith shop and other things down that way got lonesome because there were no whistles blowing; sometimes he even  forgot to eat his dinner, because no warning whistle tole him when it was noon.  So, he bought a whistle  and made a bargain with Frank Reinhardt, the buttermaker, to have the creamery furnish the steam.  Mr Evans and Mr. Reinhardt worked faithfully all one afternoon, nearly freezing their fingers getting the whistle mounted and now its shrill tones wake the echoes every day at noon.

•••••••••   

A very large number of those around Granton are signing contracts for the pickle factory, so guess it will be a go yet.  Mr. Wm. Storms reports that he will sign a contract to raise an acre of pickles for it, but I’ll bet by the time he delivers his crop of pickles he won’t be as large in circumference as he is now.

 

(They were signing contracts for planting cucumber seeds, growing cucumbers to sell to a new pickling factory. DZ)   

•••••••••

Mrs. Kampine went Satruday on a vacation from her household chores, which M. Kampine volunteered to assume during her absence.  After the family had eaten the first meal without their mother cooking, one of the little daughters called on a near-by neighbor and asked her, “If she would please come over with her sewing and spend the afternoon as they had began to be so lonesome without their mamma.”                                                                      

•••••••••

Profs Stillman and Jacobson, Art Hessler, Ernest Snyder, Phil Zimmer, Earl Conlin and Gordon Campbell went to Marshfield Saturday night to see the Marshfield-Merrill basketball game.

••••••••• 

Town of Weston News:

 

No one sees much of Pat Loy now-a-days.  In fact they won’t see him until nice weather, for Pat is very busy in his wife’s sewing room building a toy silo that he intends to have patented.  Then all the cows far and near will rejoice.

•••••••••

Good, bright oat straw $10.50 per ton, when taken from the railcar; while it lasts.  Inquire at the Feed Store.

                                                                 

February 1946

 

A race between the stork and Dr. H. H. Christofferson was responsible for the first impetus given to the telephone business in eastern Clark County.  The stork won, and that started Dr. Christofferson into action.

 

The Doctor’s chief difficulty in the race with the stork was that he ran under a handicap.  The stork was above and on the way while the doctor was in Loyal.  The anxious father jumped a horse and galloped for the doctor.  But that took the time of a slow round trip, while the stork was on a straightaway.

 

Quite obviously, as the Doctor saw it, the trouble was with the communication and not with the Doctor’s speed.  Right in Loyal at the time there was the suggestion of a better and faster way, one lone telephone on the end of a line from Neillsville.  That telephone, Loyal’s only means of talking with the outside world, was located in the office of A. A. Graves sawmill.  It was only one phone, but it worked and phones like it were beginning to work all over the country.

 

What if the farmers out around Loyal had telephones, and what if they could call into Loyal for the doctor and for other purposes?  That w as the question, which Dr. Christofferson put to Mike Dayle, first president of the Citizens State Bank, and together they set out to find the answer.  They interested various farmers in the first farm lines.  The arrangement was that the farmers were to dig the holes and set poles.  Then the company strung the wires and connected the homes.

 

The doctor’s race with the stork took place in 1900, when Dr. Christofferson was fresh from medical school. By 1905, lines from Loyal ran to Granton, Spencer, Spokeville and Coxy’s Camp.  Two years later the organization headed by Doyle and Christofferson bought the rudimentary exchange, which had been started by businessmen of Loyal.  That exchange consisted of 15 stations.  Added to the farm lines, this really put the Doyle-Christofferson organization into business.

 

That was the approximate period of telephone development in neighboring communities, also a good Scandinavian named Hanson ran a line from Curtiss to Withee, and at Colby, Charles Carlton and S. E. Danes gave the business a good start.  Abbotsford also got its first small exchange.  Own, relatively new, was progressing and J. L. Clarke gave it telephone service, also extending a line to Withee.

 

Early in 1911, Karl Mess bought the Colby property and brought Fred J. Schwierske over from Wittenberg to help with it.  As Fred puts it, he “came with a toothbrush and night shirt, but stayed to raise a family.”

 

Up to this time the telephone business in the eastern and northern part of the county was amateurish and rudimentary.  The small individual exchanges were too small to be commercially attractive.  So Dr. Christofferson conceived the idea of combining exchanges and organized the Clark County Telephone Company for that purpose.  This concern purchased the Colby exchange in 1912, with the understanding that Mr. Schwierske went along as part of the transaction.  Then the Clark County Company took over the Beaver Telephone Company, which was owned by farmers, and a switchboard was installed in the office of Fred Soles in Spencer, with Mrs. Soles in charge.  Four years later, Abbotsford joined and in 1918, the properties at Owen, Withee and Curtiss were added.  At that time, about 200 stations were in service in and around Owen.

 

Having organized this group, the Clark County Telephone Company made improvements.  Grounded lines were metallicized by the addition of another wire, and a common battery switchboard and telephones were installed in Owen in 1920; at Colby was constructed the one-story brick building now in use, and upon its completion the common battery services was introduced.

 

Not all troubles of the early telephone services were due to primitive equipment, as Dr. Christofferson amply learned.

•••••••••

Oluf Olson, janitor at the courthouse, celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday on Monday.  He gave a party to his friends there, with the help of Mrs. Olson, providing rolls, doughnuts, dill pickles, cheese and coffee.

 

It was Oluf’s idea that he  was the one to set ‘em up, but his friends had their own ideas about it, and they bought a box of cigars for him.  Now a box of cigars for Mr. Olson is a long smoke, for when he smokes a cigar, he makes a business of it, taking his time and doing nothing else.

 

Mr. Olson has completed 31 years as janitor at the courthouse and is still going strong.

•••••••••

The Paulson garage building, corner of Fifth and Grand, has been sold to Charles Perko of Willard.  This is the building often spoken of locally as the Moose Hall.

 

Peter Paulson constructed the building in 1914.  It was  the first garage building in Neillsville and housed the original Ford agency here, as well as the Dodge agency, Mr. Paulson having represented both lines.  The building has been in the Paulson family since Mr. Paulson’s death and has been rented to the Moose Lodge, which occupied the upper floor, and to William Whaley, whose garage occupied the ground floor.

 

The location is wanted by Mr. Perko to use for his agency of farm implements.  He will eventually develop the location for this purpose.  He plans to put a new front  on the building.  For the immediate future, however, has has no plans that are likely to disrupt present occupancies.  He is more likely to try to arrange the space in such manner that the Whaley business can be accommodated, along with his own implement business.                          

•••••••••

Advertising their dance of last Friday night, students of Neillsville High School wrote this display on their bulletin board at the high school:

 

“Don’t dream, but grab your Chickery-chick and do the Tico Tico at the jolly Free-for-All.  Come and dig your neighbor at the shindig of the century, 1946.

 

“Don’t be a drip, but come and drool.”

 

This must have been a good advertising copy, for the dance was well attended and turned out to be an excellent opportunity for digging and drooling.                                                                             

•••••••••           

A Sheep and Wool Day Program will be given Wednesday, February 20, at the high school in Loyal.

 

The program will begin at 8:45 a.m. At noon, a free lunch will be served and the afternoon program will continue until 3:45 p.m.  In addition to talks by prominent specialists there will be movies, exhibits and a discussion.

 

The meeting is sponsored by the Wisconsin Cooperative Wool Growers Association, in cooperation with the extension service of the College of Agriculture, the Wisconsin state department of agriculture and the equity and Central cooperatives.                                                                                                  

•••••••••

Rufus Karl went through the Battle of the Bulge and a lot more in the war and didn’t get a scratch.  Then right in Marshfield, within 30 miles of home, he and his car had a run-in with a Soo Line train, with a contusion resulting on Rufus’ forehead and with his car rather badly smashed up.

 

The collision between Rufus and the train took place at 1:52 a.m. Satruday morning.  The train came out alright; Rufus was hurt only a little; the car is yet to be heard from.  Rufus was given first aid at the Marshfield hospital.  Then he walked out and was on his way; but the car lingered in Marshfield.

 

Rufus is the son of Mrs. Joe Karl.  He belonged to the 101st Airborne in World War II.

•••••••••

The housing shortage stood the “acid” test in Neillsville during the last week.

 

Patrick Kirby, a recent new-comer from Humbird, gave the test.  He offered a $10 reward for information leading to the finding of a “suitable apartment or house.”  The offer was published in The Clark County Press.

 

Had there been any sort of possibility, Mr. Kirby would have heard.  After all, 10 bucks is 10 bucks.  But the only nibble he got was the offer of a single room - which was not enough to provide living quarters for himself, his wife and their five-month-old son.

 

Mr. Kirby, who was discharged from the army about a year ago, is working as a watch repairman in Neillsville.

 

Yes, the offer stands.  Call Red 215.                                                        

•••••••••

Did you ever stop to think how important milk haulers are to the Neillsville community?  They bring the milk to the plants.  Often, they bring with them a patron who needs to catch a ride.  They also often bring a list of things needed by the farmer and the farmer’s wife, a point for the plow, a package of cigarettes or a sack of flour and they carry those things back to the farm.

 

Time was that we had no milk haulers.  Farmers always took their milk to the neighboring plant.  But with the development of good roads and motor transportation, distances lengthened and it was cheaper for the farmer to use a hauler who makes a business of it.

 

A successful hauler needs to be able to handle trucks, milk and people.

      

(At that time, milk trucks were equipped with attached snowplows, being able to remove snow from the farm driveways to the barn.  However, the snow removed may not have been enough to get the family car out, or the farmer was too busy to go to town, so the milk hauler was asked to do favors.  DZ) 

 

During the mid-1900s, there were several milk-can hauling trucks within Clark County. Each truck was equipped with a box mounted on the chassis that had doors to be opened for loading 10-gallon cans.  Each truck driver had a designated route, making stops at the farms, picking up milk cans to deliver to a certain cheese or butter factory.  The above photo was taken of Ray Strebing’s milk truck, which hauled for American Stores Condensed Milk canning factory.

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