Remembering Hoard Township

Clark County, Wisconsin

The Recorder

1. Curtiss Anniversary

2. Bass Deal Recalled

3. Civil War Veterans
   
   COMMEMORATING the 15th anniversary of the platting of their village site, residents of Curtiss in northeastern (lark county are enjoying a homecoming and carnival celebration this weekend that no doubt will leave many pleasant memories with those participating. Judging from pictures in Tuesday’s News-Herald, young and old are joining wholeheartedly in the program sponsored by the community which 40 years ago had a population 350 and currently is credited with less than half that number. But many of those who formerly lived there are returning for the special occasion, and it seen is safe to predict that the 1911 figure will be greatly exceeded today and tomorrow.

From the history of Clark county published in 1918 and from Roy L. Martin’s “History of the Wisconsin Central” (1941) we learned that Curtiss came into existence as a station on the Wisconsin Central Railroad in 1880 when the line was extended from Abbotsford to Chippewa Folk. An additional source says that the station was named by the Central for Charles Curtiss, civil engineer, who bought 200 acres of land southeast of the village site, remained two years and logged off the best timber, which he had sawed at the local mill.
According to Martin, the extension contract was completed Nov. 22, 1880 and train service over the new line was inaugurated in December of that year. The Clark county history says the village site, surveyed by Edwin R. Parks, was plaited Nov. 17, 1882. The footsteps toward incorporation were taken in 1914, when an application was granted and a charter election favored the proposal 33 to 3, but this action was declared null and void Feb. 1,

1917. A new petition filed four days later was granted March 30 and the election took place April 24. Judges at the election, at which 32 votes favored incorporation and 9 apposed the proposition, were 8. B. Green, Glen Reibsamen and F. W. Laabs.

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Among the pioneers of the Curtiss area were two whose names also appear in connection with the early history of Marshfield. A. B. Bass, a native of Connecticut, who came to Wisconsin in 1871 and 10 years later to Curtiss, purchased two acres of land on East Fourth street in this city in September, 1890, from Henry Krier and built four houses still known to old-timers here as the Bass cottages. The Marshfield Times of Dec. 6, 1895, announced his death, which occurred Dec. 5 at Curtiss, where he and his partner, Nathan (lark, built the first sawmill. Bass also operated o store for a time, sewed as Curtiss postmaster and as chairman of the town of Mayville. (Curtiss is located an the line dividing Mayville and Hoard townships.

G. A. Lupient, born at Prairie du Chien in 1840 and a veteran of the Civil War, who helped erect the first building on the site of Marshfield in 1872, moved to a homestead near Curtiss (in Mayville) in 1873 and lived there until 1887 with the exception of one year (1883-4) spent near Aberdeen, S. D. The Lupients’ son Frank took his family to the Mayville farm in 1907 from Marshfield and made his home there for the rest of his life. Lt. Col. Roy Lupient, whose death occurred here early this year, was a grandson of G. A. Lupient.

Another Civil War veteran preceded Lupient to Mayville and become prominent in the development of Curtiss. Andrew Nelson Virch, who was born in Norway in 1845, arrived In America in 1854, enlisted in 1862, came to Wisconsin In 1870 and to Mayville in 1872, moved to Curtiss the same year that the village was platted. He established the lint general store, in which the

postal lice was located when he was appointed postmaster in 1883. His first term ended in 1886, and he served again from 1888 to 1892. In 1895 he disposed of his stock of merchandise and in 1903 became the rural mail carrier, carrying the first mail out of Curtiss on Feb. 3. He was on the mute 12 years according to his biography in the Clark County history. When the area was ravaged by a tornado the night of June 3, 1905 (the same night that the McMillan community suffered heavy loss) the Virch residence, two barns and store building were razed. A year later the family returned to the Mayville farm.

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Among the earliest settlers in the town of Hoard was another Wisconsin-born Civil War veteran, Adolph B. Matthias, whose paternal grandfather, a native of Germany, in 1834 bought 160 acres of land now forming part of the site of Milwaukee. This was the birthplace of the Curtiss pioneer, who learned the trade of blacksmith after his discharge from the Army, where he attained the rank of sergeant. In 1870 he took up a homestead in the town of Hoard. The same year Ole Thompson came to Clark County from Norway and eight years later also began farming in Hoard township. Eventually the oldest daughter of the Thompsons became the bride of the oldest of the Matthias sons. Mr. Thompson was one of the organizers of the Curtiss State Bank in 1912, and served for many years as its president. Another early Hoard settler, Arne Olson, who came to Wisconsin from Norway in 1810, was joined by his family in 1812 and a year later helped organize Mayville, which included the present town of Hoard until 1889.

The Fred Machletts, who migrated from Germany to Wisconsin in 1813, located three years later in the town of Green Grove, 1/2, miles south of the site later selected for Curtiss and after the turn of the century moved into the village. Their son Henry bought a farm in Hoard and lived there from 1871 to 1883 when he became a blacksmith in Curtiss. In 1895 he opened a hardware store in connection with his smithy, selling the latter in 1891. lie also operated the Curtiss Hotel from 1889 to about 1901 according to the Clark County history which supplied material for the other Curtiss biographies. From a historical outline prepared in 1955 by Mrs. Anna Tonn and used in connection with the community’s celebration of the completion of the extensive street Improvement project initiated in 1952 we gleaned the following items:

Bass & Clark, whose first sawmill was located near the creek east of the present home of Miss Bertha Kraut, moved the town from the flag station on the fanner Andrew Olson land west of Main Street to its present site because he needed water to run the mill. In 1897 Albert Pribhenow started a new sawmill which he operated until the early 30’s. . . The first creamery in town was started by O. K. Dahlherg on E. Front Street where the home of Mrs. Emil Buss is now . . . In 1899 Emil Laabs started the first cheese factory in the creamery. This was partly destroyed in the 1905 storm which also swept away most of the village buildings. In the winter of 1905-6 Emil bobs and his brother Fred hauled lumber from Colby and started the present Laabs factory on the north end of Main Street . . . The first church built in Curtiss was the Lutheran, now the Congregational. The new Lutheran church was built in 1905 and later the Reformed Church in the village and the Norwegian Church west of town. . .In 1909 Mr. and Mrs. Ben Green moved to Curtiss and operated a general store for a number of years. . .In 1910 all but one of the Front Street buildings were wiped out by fire. Rebuilt the same year, they now comprise Front Street east of the bank . . . The Northern States Power Co. came to Curtiss in December, 1922 and the lights were finished the following February. As stated in Tuesday’s story, present officers of the village are Harold Laabs, President; Les Bowen and Emery Peissig, Trustees and Tony Hennlich, Supervisor. Mrs. Hennlich is postmistress.
The Recorder was from Marshfield.