History: Hendren - Willard

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Zager

----Source: Ameriski Slovenci SNPF 1904

(Article translated from Slovenian by Frank Pakiz of Greenwood, Wis.)

Willard is an agricultural community.

There around the 1916 to 17 there spread out among the brush and stumps, the Slovenians made into farms. The Slovenian National Society established a club in the year 1923 with 74 members.

Peter Zager says about this area: “First settlers came about 1908 - 1909. The ground was cut over by loggers, no roads. The railroads were the center of everything. The first settlers each bought some land and started clearing it. Some land there was swampy and the early settlers had to get all their supplies from the rail depot to their homes, as there were no roads. Everything was grown over so you could only see up! Under these circumstances they put up the church and walked to services. In the Sunday afternoons their children went to religious instruction. Some walked up to two miles. One boy got lost and the whole area looked for him. It looked like snow so tracks were not found. The third day he was found in a farmer’s shed half frozen. With much trouble they brought him back to like, but he lost his toes. They were completely frozen.”

In 1913 another club was started - the S.N.P.J.