Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

February 12, 1997, Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

In the Good Old Days

 By Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

February 1887

 

T. C. Hartford announces a dance at Gwin’s hall in the village of Loyal, for the 22nd.

 

The annual meeting of the Black River Log – Driving Association will be held in this village on Feb. 15th.

 

The steamer, Mountain Belle, a raft boat belonging to Messrs. Hewett & Wood, was burned last Monday at the mouth of Black River.

 

A new hardware store is soon to be opened in this village.  O. P. Wells has been in the business heretofore, and is well known to the trade.

 

The bill before the Legislatures authorizing the Commissioners of the State School Fund to loan a portion theretofore to the Town of Pine Valley, in this county, will become a law.

 

The donation party given at the O’Neill House last Wednesday evening, for the benefit of Rev. W. H. Chynowith, proved a rare social treat.  It yielded an income over and above all expenses, of $46.30.  The entertainment in the Hall, consisting of music, tableaux, etc. managed by Mrs. Schofield, was a decided success.

 

The recent thaw has completely destroyed the prospects of lumbermen for the present winter.  Most of the logging roads are as bare as in June.  The probabilities of their being good again during the present winter are not sufficiently promising to inspire much hope.  The present break-up has been the most disastrous to this to this interest that has been known in this region within the memory of those who have been longest on the river.

 

School report – since January 1st, twenty-eight schools have been visited.  Twelve of these have male teachers.  In one school I found five students present, in another six; in another seven; in another eight, and in another nine.  With these exceptions, the attendance has been found to be good.  The following schools had a very full attendance: Neillsville, Humbird, Pleasant Ridge, Windfall, Hyslips, Dwyers, Palmer’s, Brock’s Corners and Ackerman’s.

 

On the whole, the schools are in good condition; but in most of them there is room for improvement.  Humbird has an excellent schoolhouse.  Huntley’s District has a very fine organ, as well as many other excellent things.  In the Sternitzky settlement they have also a very good house, with a bell.

 

In nearly all cases, the school house grounds need to be decorated by the planting and caring for of good shade – trees.

 

Several of the log school-houses are decidedly neat and comfortable, but some of the old ones will soon give place to elegant structures.—Wm. T. Hendren, Supt.

 

Town of Lynn – James Thomas, a foreman for W. T. Price at his camp in the Town of Fremont, has hauled into the O’Neill Creek two million, four hundred and seventy-five thousand feet of pine logs this winter.  They are now putting at the rate of fifty thousand daily.  They are hauling on the crotches; (a forked support for a swinging boom), the timber being near the bank of the stream.  Thomas has a force of forty men, nine yoke of oxen and six spans of horses.  They intend to haul until the first of April.

 

Some of our neighbors from this vicinity have attempted to draw the saccharine matter from the maple trees.  The flow of sap is not large as yet.  The ground is not thawed enough to have much of a run.  The oldest inhabitants of this district say they never saw such a warm time so early in the season.

 

February 1907

 

Not all American girls’ accomplishments are useless, as is proven by the example of a young woman who lives in the southern limits of our neighboring county, Eau Claire County.  In December, Miss Maller purchased forty-four young pigs for the nominal price of $10.  She kept them just thirty-six days, feeding, and tending to them all herself and this week sold them for $126.  She had since received several proposals of marriage, but to these she has turned a deaf ear, saying that she has no time at present to think of such things.

 

The Clark County Butter Co. held a special meeting Monday afternoon for the purpose of deciding whether or not to take the cream from the farmers who have separators.

 

A “hard-times” supper was held at Shaffer’s hall in Town of Washburn.  There was a large attendance and all report a fine time.  Friday night Feb. 22, there will be a dance at the hall.

 

Ketel & Smith’s pure Food Grocery specials: 7 bars Santa Claus Soap - 25¢; 20 Mule Team Borax – 8 pkgs. 13¢:  Look over our line of Smoked and Salt Fish.

 

The Roddis Veneer Factory burned at Marshfield Saturday night.  Loss between $75,000 and $100,000

 

Paul Wolk’s “Seal shipt” oysters are making a big hit.  Paul has a standing order of 10 gallons per week.

 

February 1937

 

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schiller observed their 60th wedding anniversary Sunday at their home on North Grand Avenue.  They were married at Fond du Lac Feb. 6, 1877.

 

The Schillers have resided in their present home for the past 45 years.  Eight years after their marriage they came to Neillsville where Schiller worked for the John Hein Lumber Co. in the Towns of Seif and York.

 

Hot lunches will be available to area high school students.  As a part of the training for those attending the Teacher Training course each year is a short unit presented by the Home Economics Department on “hot lunches”.

 

This year the girls are receiving their training by serving hot lunches to those desiring it in the high school.  The girls prepare and serve each day a hot dish, dessert and milk.  The preparation includes besides the cooking, the planning and purchasing of the food.

 

The patronage of this lunch has steadily increased during the past week.  The students need not purchase an entire lunch but sign for the food they wish.  Five cents is charged for the hot dish, four cents for dessert and three cents for a small bottle of milk.

 

The project has proved so successful that the freshman and sophomore classes in Home Economics will continue the work when the Teacher Training students have finished their work.

 

Extensive remodeling of the Neillsville Armory, being done under the direction of Herman North and John Adler, has made the structure one of the finest auditoriums and National Guard buildings in this section of the state.

 

Frank Nauertz and Alice Heintz were married Tuesday by A. E. Dudley, police justice.

 

The law demanding that all gold coins be turned in to the federal government caused many to part with keepsakes, especially those who were honest enough to report their holdings.  Erwin Moldenhauer has a two and one-half dollar gold piece that was given to his mother, Christina Wachtmann, when she was 14 years of age as part payment for raking, by hand, a large field of grain on the farm of her father.  After her marriage her husband offered it as security to W. Lachman of the Town of Grant for chicken feed for which there was no ready cash.  He marked the coin with the letter “M” to distinguish it from similar coins.  It was not accepted, however, the friend stating that no security was necessary.  At the request of his mother the coin came into the possession of Erwin Moldenhauer after her death and he has naturally been very reluctant to part with it.  He reported it at the time gold coins were being called in, asking the privilege to retain it.  Until Monday morning he thought his request was granted, a letter that morning notifying him that no exemption was provided for coins as keepsakes.

 

Special Valentine’s Day Dinner, Sunday, for only 50 cents at Chapman’s Grill

 

Owen is planning to build a dam on the Popple River to provide a pond for recreational purposes.

 

The worst blizzard in years hit Clark County on the past weekend.  It started on Saturday night and continued through Monday.  Drifts of snow were piled into 10 to 12 ft. drifts in places.  At Augusta and Fairchild between 70 and 80 cars were stranded along highway 12 with many of the occupants seeking shelter in hotels, depots or in their own cars.  Neillsville had every available room taken by travelers.  One couple and their children who were unable to find a room, appealed to the sheriff to provide them with shelter overnight at the county jail.

Deep snow drifts were an obstacle to train travel in the early 1900’s.  A spring snow storm, May 13, 1907, stalled the Central Minneapolis-St. Paul railroad engines three miles southeast of Lynn which also drew a crowd of spectators.

 

The Neillsville Furniture Factory and its lumber shed yards were located along the railroad tracks on Neillsville’s west side.  The factory was completed in 1891 and was destroyed by fire on June 29, 1910.  It was a unique structure consisting of four floors with elevators from floor to floor and no inside stairways.  (Photos courtesy of Clark County Historical Society’s Jail Museum)

 

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To Live is more than to make a living—Progress requires that each man make his own living by lending himself to the general plan—If all he gets out of it is his living, he is like the man who goes on cleaning out the gutter while the king’s pageant sweeps by—More than half of life is to know the times—in which we live—

 

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