Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

March 21, 2018 Page 12  

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

March 1918

 

Early in December last year the papers all over the country advised the people, regarding hoarding of flour and sugar.  Not more than a thirty-day supply is permitted.  Lists have been obtained showing that a large number of people in this county are violating the law by having on hand more flour and sugar, particularly flour, than the law allows.  The penalty is $5,000, or two years imprisonment, or both.  All flour or sugar held in violation of the law should be returned to the seller for credit.  A record is being kept of sales, as well as articles returned.  In case return is not made, the food administrator will take the matter up personally with the offender.  This does not apply to farmers raising their own rye or wheat who have exchanged it, rye for rye flour, and wheat for wheat flour.

 

J. E. Ketel, County Federal Food Administrator for Clark County.

 

(The restrictions were made because of World War I at the time. DZ)

•••••••••

At Marshfield, the liquor interests have locked horns with the anti-saloon league and the tempest rages in whole pages full of paid advertising space, and hell and dynamite, and dry-rot, and hypocrisy, are invoked, and arguments are given at-large, and quotations made from distant climes to prove this or that all wrong. The city of Marshfield is certainly going some, and ought to get somewhere soon.

•••••••••

Neillsville is prosperous and is improving in many ways, new bank buildings, the Condensery, the Knorr & Rausch Ford assembling establishment and sales headquarters, the new flouring mill, the prospect of securing the new county asylum, the canning factory’s steady growth.  Neillsville needs more houses.  Rents are increasing and it would pay to build right now.  The city’s future is in our own hands.

•••••••••

Dr. S. R. Perkins of Delafield was in the city last week on his way to his big farm, the old George Huntzicker place on the road to Greenwood.  He has sold out to Ralph Ericson of Viola, Wis., who had held an option on the farm for six months.                                                                                                                                                                        

•••••••••

Marshfield is enlarging and improving a big well, from which the city gets their supply of water.  It is being carried down to bedrock.  Neillsville is putting several thousand dollars into the filter to try and make the Black River water pure and clear and of drinkable quality.  We have a large number of springs about the city, but after the city grandmothers tried a witch-hazel faker, the city settled down to the steady use of the dark extract known as Black River water.

 

(Thankfully those days are over, as we now have good, clear, tasty well-water, which is piped into our city. DZ)

•••••••••      

Mrs. Oluf Olson took her daughter to the doctors in Marshfield on Monday for examination.  The girl is suffering from an affected knee following scarlet fever.                                     

•••••••••

Among Clark County’s progressive farmers is Mr. W. E. Steinhaus, living upon his farm that is near the Imig farm, and there can be found a flock of as fine Shropshire sheep as exists in the state.  Mr. Steinhaus is a graduate of the university agricultural college and a thoroughly scientific farmer.  Mrs. Steinhaus is an enthusiastic Red Cross worker.                                                               

•••••••••

Frank Bowar and son, Herman, came up Tuesday from Cazenovia, in Richland County, and took over the Raine farm, which adjoins the fairgrounds.  This is the Free Lindsay farm, a handsome place and a good farm.  Mr. Raine has rented the Adolph Hemp house and will move in at once.  The Bowar father and son are expert farmers and will be a welcome addition to our farming community.  The family and household effects are expected to arrive today.                                                               

•••••••••

Joe McKimm was in Westboro, Taylor County, Friday to get his teams of horses that had been working in the pineries.                                                                                                                

•••••••••

A class of twelve children was confirmed at the Globe Lutheran Church, Sunday.  They were: Delbert and Frederick Grap, Willie Mitte, Willie and Martin Kalsow, Paul Hemp, Gertrude Lang, Marie Fechtner, Lillian Thoma and Frances Poppe.  (Sorry only 10 names are listed. DMK)                                                                       

•••••••••

On March 30, the Chime Clock on the First National Bank will be set one hour ahead in compliance to the government’s request.  This will be done at 4 o’clock p.m.  The clock has been keeping accurate time and is a great convenience to the public.

 

(Apparently because of World War I, the Federal Government ordered daylight savings time to conserve electrical power. DZ)                                                                                      

•••••••••

City Clerk Henry Schroeder has published notice that there will be an election April 2 as to whether Neillsville shall issue licenses to liquor dealers for the coming year.

 

With the city election, the senatorial election and the dry or wet election, the city is certainly having a whole lot to decide next week.  Our ablest leaders are observant of the tendency of public opinion, and evidences accumulate that great victories are won from behind at home as ell as abroad, or soon to be won.

 

(The stage was being set as to what was coming.  On Jan. 1, 1920, the National Prohibition Act, or Volstead Act, was enacted to carry out the 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale of liquor, which was repealed in 1933. DZ)                                                                                                        

 

March 1948

 

Formal dedication of the new cheese plant in Abbotsford was held on March 2.  The cooperative, which erected the building, began in operations in Abbotsford in 1933 with 86 patrons.  The organization now has 275 patrons during the summer handled about 100,000 pounds of milk daily.

•••••••••

Huge 90-foot poles for the fairground athletic field were being set in place this week by a Northern States Power company crew.

 

The big poles, of western cedar, are being set 11 feet into the ground, and rise 79 feet above the surface of the playing field.  The lighting equipment will be installed by a Whitehall contractor.

 

The first steps in the improvement of the fairground athletic field was the leveling and dragging of the field late last fall.  The ground will be seeded down this spring.

 

The improvement work is a project of the Neillsville Athletic association of which Jack Tibbett is president, with the cooperation of the public property committee of the county board of supervisors.  O. J. Warren of the Town of York is chairman of the county group.

 

(The Neillsville city baseball team played games there.  Also, Neillsville High School football games and baseball games were also played on the fairground property until the mid-1950s  when playing fields were built near the present school building complex. DZ)                        

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Matt Gassen and son have moved into the home they recently purchased on South Clay Street, built by John H. Flynn.                                                                 

•••••••••

Announcement – Bill Hrasky has taken over management & operation of the Service Department of F. L. Reinhard Co., East 6th Street, Neillsville. We have the latest automotive test equipment.

•••••••••

The Richard Howe family, living 1Ό miles northeast of Granton, had the uncomfortable feeling of people living on top of a volcano.

 

And for all they know, that’s just what they are doing.

 

Strange subterranean rumblings beneath the floor of the small house in which they live have caused them many a sleepless night in the last eight or nine months.

 

These rumblings very in intensity from low murmurs to deep thunder-like roars.

 

The ear must be attuned to hear the low murmurs, according to Mr. and Mrs. Howe.  But the big roars are so violent they have rattled the windows and shaken the floors of the old one-story frame house.

 

And thereby hangs one of the most absorbing mysteries of the area today.

 

The Howe family moved into the house, the old Fred Allyes place just east of Tyler’s corners, last April.  They are renting from Helvor Eide, who occupies the farm adjoining to the east.

 

At first all was serene, Mr. Howe said. Then, sometime last summer these underground rumblings were first detected by their ears.  The sound has increased in intensity during the intervening time, and up until about a month ago they paid no particular heed to them.

 

They noticed that the faint low-pitched murmurs about 6 p.m., developing during the night into full roars, “like thunder” between 10:30 p.m. and 1 a.m., and decrease gradually in intensity until they disappear about 6 a.m.

 

According to Howes, the mysterious noises are irregular during the cold weather, but they are constant during the warmer weather, occurring about every 15 to 20 minutes.

 

Just three weeks ago the Halvor Eides, who owns the place, stopped in to see about the noise.  And the noises came in loud and clear.  One was an unusually loud roar, Mr. Howe said.

 

The only outsiders to hear it thus far are Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Reisner of Lynn, who were visiting the Howes a few nights ago when the roaring started.

 

According to Mr. Howe, Mr. Eide had “a theory that there is a small pocket of natural gas in the ground below the house, and that will dissipate itself.”  This, Mr. Howe has been told, has happened before in this area.

 

(This is like reading a mystery novel, leaving a reader wondering if the natural gas theory was true.  DZ)    

•••••••••

Ole Black River beat spring to the punch.

 

The ice started going out in the river about 6 p.m. Friday, March 19, 16 ½ hours in advance of the official arrival of spring.

 

The break-up was temporary, for the ice stopped moving during the night Friday, then let loose for good about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

 

This information comes from Mrs. Guy Schultz of Dells Dam who has watched the antics of Ole Black for many years.  The breakup came “about as usual,” this year, Mrs. Schultz said. The ice in the river usually breaks up between the 15th and 20th of March.

 

There was one difference, however; the breakup was not as violent as has been the case during some springs.

 

The roar of the river could be heard above other noises Satruday night, by the old-timers whose ears have long been attuned to the first spring roar of the flashy Black River.

 

If the breakup of the Black River weren’t enough to herald the end of winter; then the sugar bush tappers definitely put winter on the run.

 

Saturday, several sugar bush in this area were tapped; and Glen Robinson, who tapped about 250 trees on the old home farm near Christie, reported that the sap was flowing then.

 

Once an extensive business in Clark County, the making of maple syrup and maple sugar has gradually been relegated to that of a minor sideline here.  Most of the large sugar bush have disappeared; and with them also has gone the art of tapping.

 

A shack out in the woods, built solely to be used during maple syrup making.  A good supply of cut firewood was stacked nearby, as it took a good quantity of wood for firing the fire pit under the large sap pan, which had to be tended constantly.

                                                                     

•••••••••

Seventy years ago, the Rev. Jacob Hauser came to this part of Wisconsin and was greeted by old Chief Blackhawk, a Winnebago.  Said the old chief: “We are glad that you have come.  We too believe in Earthmaker.  We love our children and shall be glad to see them well trained and well taught.”

 

Last Wednesday evening, the Rev. Mitchell Whiterabbit, great-grandson of Chief Blackhawk, spoke to the white people of Neillsville at Zion Reformed Church.  He brought in his own way much the same message that was brought 70 years ago by Mr. Hauser.  He spoke to a congregation, which filled Zion Church to overflowing, with the aisles partially occupied by extra chairs.

 

The occasion was spoken of as a homecoming for Mr. Whiterabbit.  He was back among friends whom he made in Neillsville during his long residence here as a boy in the Indian School and a youth in high school.  Since his graduation from Neillsville High School he has spent eight years in gaining a higher education; four years in college studies at Mission House at Plymouth and two additional yeas in theological studies there, then a year in Lancaster and McCormick seminaries.

 

At the completion of his seminary studies Mr. Whiterabbit was commissioned chaplain in the U. S. Navy, the first Indian to be so honored.  The war ended before he went abroad, and he took temporary service as a supply pastor in a church of whites in Wheeling, West Virginia.  During his preparation for the ministry he was strongly desirous of serving white congregations, but he finally came to look upon work among his own people as his calling.  So, he recently accepted appointment to the Indian Mission at Black River Falls.

 

Mr. Whiterabbit is married.  His wife is the daughter of a full-blooded Arapahoe Indian.

 

Though old Chief Blackhawk welcomed the missionaries, he did not associate himself with the Christian Church.  His great-grandson was baptized in 1930, along with other young members of the family.  It was not until later that his grandmother and great-aunt were baptized, in their old age, by the Rev. Ben Stucki.

 

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