Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

July 8, 1998, Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

Good Old Days

 

By Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

July 1878

 

Work on the new Odd Fellow’s Hall has commenced in earnest.  It will be a frame building veneered with brick, 24 x 70 feet and two stories high.  The upper story will be occupied by the Odd Fellows and temperance societies, jointly, as a lodge room.  The lower story will be leased for business purposes.  (The building still stands at 140 West 5th Street. D. Z.)

 

The cheese factory at Huntzicker’s is supplying stores here with a very excellent article of cheese.  The business is a complete success.

 

Several wagon loads of wheelbarrows and other implements needed for the construction of the Hemlock Island Dam north of Greenwood, passed through Neillsville this week.  A steam sawmill will be erected there for the purpose of sawing plank and square timber needed in the construction of the dam.

 

The Town Board of Pine Valley has closed a contract with J. B. Burnham, agent of the King Iron Bridge Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland, Ohio.  The company will build a low truss combination bridge over Black River, on the Humbird Road, at an expense of $2,000.  (Humbird road later became Hwy. 10 and Cty Trk B. D. Z.) The bridge will be a combination of wood and wrought iron.  It is believed it will be an economical and substantial structure.  It is a bridge that has received high testimonials and will no doubt meet every expectation.  It is one that has been long needed, and at last became indispensable. 

 

At Neillsville, a quiet picnic was held near the fairgrounds, so quiet that many did not know it was going on.  There was an informal gathering of the Germans at the brewery grove with festivities during the day.  Well attended dances were held at the Brewery Hall and the Fireman’s Hall in the evening with good times had by all.

 

The Town of Pine Valley will hold an election on July 31st, to vote on a proposition to issue $15,000 in bonds to aid in the construction of the Black River Railroad.

 

A few Neillsville men have procured a charter, had the line surveyed, and found the distance from Merrillan to Neillsville depot to be 13 ½ miles.  They have quietly gone to nearly completing building the Wedges Creek Bridge, and have contracted a large patron of ties at seven cents each to put on the track.  Also, they made arrangements to have the railroad bed graded and ready for ties at $600 per mile, finding there are only two bridges needed which can be built for a cost of about $1,000 each with the necessary bridge iron offered at about $2,400.

 

There may be a voter or two in Clark County who will oppose the railroad proposition, but from what we know of the character of the people here, they will be all for the proposal.

 

E. D. Carter, of Humbird, has his new mill, near there, in operation.  At present, he is sawing a large bill of square timber for the West Wisconsin Railway.

 

A little ten year old son of Herman Hemp, Town of Weston, received a serious injury last Thursday evening.  He was standing in front of a yoke of oxen, waving a leafed tree twig to keep the flies off the oxen’s heads.  One of the oxen, in trying to free it of flies, swung its head and struck the boy in the side, just below the ribs with his horn.  The oxen’s horn made an ugly wound in the boys muscle but fortunately didn’t penetrate the body cavity nor broke any ribs.

 

We are informed of the approach of a gang of lightning rod sharks.  Farmers and others should be on the look out for them.

 

Ed Donavon, of Loyal, has a real good dog and the family thinks a great deal of him.  However, he is not a brave dog and he would never volunteer to put down a rebellion or fight an intruder.  Ed’s dog was up early on the morning of the 4th of July but was no equal to the evening’s celebration.  At the sound of the first anvil’s bang, the dog left the village as fast as his legs would carry him, making more noise than the anvil that frightened him. The dog being indispensable in the family, had to be found and after a week’s search, he was discovered to be in Greenwood.  The family is pleased to have their dog back with them.

 

Through the agency of Herman Schuster, district clerk, the Neillsville Grade School will draw its proportion of the state fund for the maintenance of public high schools.  What the amount will be we are unable to state but it will be a benefit whatever that amount shall be.

 

The Sherman Guard will parade thru town on the afternoon of Aug. 7 and give a dance at Fireman’s Hall in the evening to which the general public is invited.  Cards will be $1.00, supper extra.

 

Jaseph and Pond have doubled the size of their store by tearing out portions of the back part.  They now occupy the entire floor which is nicely fitted and makes a very attractive, convenient store.  It is filled with new goods and good specials.  For only $1.00, you may buy 9 lbs. Coffee Sugar, or 13 lbs. Dried Apples or 10 lbs. No. 1 Prunes or 13 lbs. Codfish, or 10 lbs. No. 1 Rice, or 10 cans Cove Oysters, or 4 lbs. Green Coffee.

 

The celebrated Walker Family Silver Cornet Band will provide entertainment at the Fireman’s Hall on Wednesday evening.  Admission is 35 cents and 50 cents.

 

July 1908

 

Sheriff Jaseph, between his official duties, occasionally finds time for a little sport.  On one of his recent visits to Humbird, he went prepared to do some trout fishing.  Jaseph succeeded in landing 13 fine trout which average one pound each.  He went to Neillsville with a nice surprise for the family’s supper.

 

Mr. Louis Buddenhagen and Miss Emerence Walters were married in Minneapolis on June 17.  Mr. Buddenhagen is one of Clark County’s enterprising young farmers.  He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Buddenhagen.  His bride is the daughter of Mrs. C. Walters and has been prominently identified with the educational interest of the county.  She is a graduate of Neillsville High School and for two terms served as County Superintendent of Schools.  Presently she has taught the grammar department of the public school.

 

The newly wedded couple will commence housekeeping on the old McTaggert farm in Pine Valley, northeast of the city.

 

Friday night, after the dance, Max Lange will serve lunch in his dining room and also at his lunch counter which are located over the bakery.  The following bill of fare will be offered: Hot Frankfurt’s, Hamburgers, Ham and Egg Sandwiches, Hot coffee, Milton’s Ice Cream, Strawberries, Kisses, Lady Fingers and Macaroons.

 

Co. A. Members of our local unit will assemble at the armory on Friday at 1:30 p.m. for the purpose of taking part in the dedication of the soldiers’ monument.  Members must wear full dress uniforms.  A farewell dance will be given for the Co. A. boys on Friday night as they leave for Camp Douglas and a week’s training camp.

 

Last Thursday evening Pat Molamphy landed a nine pound muskellunge at the mouth of the O’Neill Creek.  It was a dandy fish.

 

Sunday afternoon, July 28 at 2 p.m. a grove meeting will be held in Bruley’s grove, north of the Neillsville Cemetery.  Short addresses will be given by the local ministers.  The theme is “The Moral Awakening of the American People.”  Special arrangements have been made from an overflowing meeting.

 

It has been repeatedly suggested that as a matter of public interest, a substantial dam should be built across the O’Neill Creek at the Hewett Street Bridge.  The city maintains a brush dam there to protect the city water mains.  The suggestion is that a substantial dam be built there so the water will back up for a considerable distance up the creek.  The higher water would enable row boats and small launches to be operated there and it would also improve the appearance of the Creek.  It would provide a great source of pleasure to the citizens with swimming and boating made possible.

 

The Hart Launch, “The Summer Girl,” is ready for carrying passengers on Lake Arbutus.  The boats landing is located just below Dells Dam Bridge, where, there is an ample area to hitch and feed the horses while people are boating.

 

Thomas Vine, an early settler, was in Neillsville this Monday.  Vine and his wife, of Greenwood, were returning home from attending the Veterans Homecoming in Black River Falls last week.  He first came to Neillsville in 1861.  He worked for Moses Clark in the spring of that year, rafting lumber from the mouth of Cunningham Creek down Black River to La Crosse.  The met with disaster on the run and lost $20,000 cribs of lumber.

 

Vine served in the army for three years.  A homecoming is planned to be held at Neillsville next year, and Vine is hoping four members of his Company in the 14th Wisconsin will be able to attend.  The four members are: James Ferguson, W. S. Covill, E. P. Houghton and Joe Ives, all now living on the Pacific coast.

 

Several people from the Pleasant Ridge area traveled to Saddle Mound to pick blueberries.  The blueberries were plentiful but too green.  The huckleberries are also very plentiful for picking.

 

July 1938

 

Clark County is scheduled to receive over $400,000 as allocated by the federal government for what President Franklin D. Roosevelt calls “The real drive on the Depression.”  The governments “lending-spending program” is to go for relief, public works, the army and navy as well as federal lending corporations.  The new spending program is designed to place large amounts of money in circulation in hope that the new “pump priming” may help bring better times.

 

Clark County is to get $288,000 to build and improve town to market roads, $83,000 or more for dams and other improvements on the Black River, crop and other aid to farmers, and new post offices in a number of cities.  It is possible that the amount to be spent in the county many (may) go over $500,000.  Ed Acker is the engineer in charge of the highway work, with offices in Owen.

 

The WPA employment rolls will increase, as well as increases in PWA and CCC spending.  The navy is starting construction on 39 more ships, including four battleships.  The army will add 3,000 enlisted men and a few hundred officers to it roll.  There will be 1,500 men added to the air corps.  Contracts were let this week for 98 airplanes and more equipment.

 

The reconstruction finance corporation speeded up its loan machinery with added potential loan power of $1,500,000,000.  Some of the amount is being loaned to businesses, a probable aid to railroads, lending agencies concerned with home ownerships and new federal buildings, mostly post offices, in every state.

 

The large flag 16 ft. by 21 ft. which has flown over Neillsville’s main street on July 3 and 4 is over 65 years old.  Its 37 stars show it was made when there were only 37 states in the Union. It is probably the most prized flag in Clark County, and is the property of Robert Kurth.  His father, Chas. Kurth, grandfather of Louis Kurth, (Neillsville’s postmaster), cut down a pine tree to secure a flag pole 110 feet high, from which the flag was flown at Kurth Corners at State occasions until 1882.  (Kurth Corners was on the Southwest corner of now Hwy. 10 and Pray Road. D.Z.)  The pole was cut down in 1882, to make room for the new brick home to be built then.  Kurth remembers after the flag was first put up on the tall pole, somebody cut the rope that secured the flag and it took a steeple jack to thread it again.

 

The interior of the Winnebago Indian School in Neillsville will be repainted in the near future.  The redecorating project requires over 300 gallons of paint which have been purchased. 

 

The Willard baseball team defeated the Christie team in a 14 to 9 slugfest Sunday.  E. Trunkel, E. Gregorich and John Zallar shared the pitching for Willard.  Monday, Willard handed Christie a 5 to 2 defeat to remain undefeated for the season.  Tony Zupanc tucked in a neat three – hit performance for the winner.

 

Any team playing independent baseball and desiring games, please contact Martin Kirn, Willard, for open dates.

 

The Dells Dam Cheese Factory was located on the southeast corner of Sherwood Road and Clark Avenue, one mile east of Black River.  Frank Polaske, once owner-manager of the cheese factory, stood near the building for a photo-graph, circa 1930.  (Photo courtesy of the Schultz Family Collection)

 

 


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