Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

May 5, 1999, Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

Good Old Days  

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

May 1909

 

While Herman Wagner went into the Shortville store, the other day, he left his team of horses and wagon standing near the corner of the road.  A calf was in the wagon and a cow was trailing behind.  When Wagner came out of the store, he discovered that the team had decided to go for a run.  The horses gave the calf a ride for his life.

 

This week, William Swan is building a belfry on the District #1 schoolhouse.

 

Max Opelt, of Lynn, was in Antigo last week buying building supplies.  As soon as the weather permits, he plans to build an addition onto his family’s house.

 

Mr. Ziegler, who lives in the Tioga area, made 35 gallons of maple syrup and some maple sugar this year.  He had a little bad luck during the maple sap run.  One of his most valuable cows died from drinking maple sap.

 

Watch for the new copper cent which is now being manufactured in the mint.  It will bear the head of Abraham Lincoln instead of the familiar Indian head.  This will be the first instance in which the portrait of a president has been used in the coinage of the United States.

 

On Monday, May 13, the E. I. DuPont Powder Co. will give a public demonstration of their dynamite in Neillsville by blasting some stumps. The exhibition will take place on the Joe Meyer farm, south of the Catholic cemetery.  The charges of dynamite will be fired by electricity.  This will be a very interesting exhibition.  The DuPont dynamite is available at the A. F. Radke hardware store.

 

A notable Pine Valley Couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Hutchings, celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary last Saturday.

 

Fifty years ago, Sam Hutchings, in the prime of vigorous and energetic manhood, joined Miss Margarette McKeand at the altar to exchange wedding vows.  They ware (were) married on May 8, 1859, by Rev. J. M. Walker, at Milwaukee.  At the time of their marriage, Hutchings was 20 years of age, having been born in 1839 at Peekskill, New York.  Mrs. Hutchings was 17 and was born in 1842 at Wauwatosa, Wis.

 

Ten years after their marriage, the young couple came to Clark County and settled in the Town of Pine Valley, four miles south of Neillsville.  They have lived on the same farm for the past 40 years, laboring so they might compensate for their old age years which can not be held off.  This couple has established one of the oldest landmarks in the county.  It can be noted that during their 40 years on the farm, every farm between theirs and Neillsville have changed ownership once and in many cases more often.

 

The Hutchings couple has had the joy of three children, Mrs. J. W. McAdams, Miss Mamie Hutchings and John E. Hutchings of Milwaukee.

 

Hutchings has participated in public affairs, having held various town offices and was influential in the success of Lynn Mutual Insurance Co. of which he was a director for 15 years.  Mrs. Hutchings character has been molded into a life of charity, kindness and goodness.

 

As a fitting memorial of their long years together, the Hutchings celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by inviting the entire neighborhood and the townspeople to join them.  Their home was decorated in a fitting manner, with a profusion of flowers.  Under tents upon the lawn and upon tables in the house, a bounteous dinner was served to the guests.

 

Don’t forget the rummage sale, Friday and Saturday, to be held in the Knoop building.  It is being put on by the Women’s Guild of the Episcopal Church.  The list of useful articles is too long in detail to list, but among those items there will be: clothing for men, women and children, furniture, books, magazines, shoes, neckwear, ornaments, pictures, dishes, toys, lamps, etc.  (Surprise!  I thought the rummage sale idea was created by our generation. D.Z.)

 

Last Sunday, Justice Max Opelt united in marriage William Dahl and Lydia Lowery.  The young couple was attended by Emma Dahl, Dora Dobtien, Sherman Lowery and Geo. Dahl.  The newly weds will live in the Town of Levis.

 

There will be a pie party at Will Kelch’s at Christie on Saturday evening.  Pies will be sold for ten cents each and the benefit will be for the Sunday School.

 

Every farmer should plant one acre of sweet fodder corn.  Tragsdorf, Zimmerman and Col. (Co.) have the seed at $1.25 and $3.00 per bushel.

 

R. H. Haubrick left Tuesday for his home in Kenosha to spend the summer.  Last week, Haubrick made arrangements where as he will assume the proprietorship of the Neillsville Business College.  He will return here in a couple of months to start work and put the college on a firm basis.

 

The college will be equipped to graduate finished bookkeepers and stenographers.  The college name has been changed to Northwestern College of Commerce. 

 

Mr. Harding has a meat market and confectionery store in the old store at Christie.  We want everyone to patronize our home meat market in our community.  When we have a good thing we want to keep it going.

 

There was an ice cream social at S. E. Morses' on Saturday evening.  The proceeds of $11.35 will be used for summer camp meetings starting June 7 in S. E. Morses’ woods.

 

Ed VandeBerg has been doing some custom work sawing.  He has finished a lumber sawing job at August Halbraeder’s at Tioga.  His portable engine has been moved to Flick’s mill.

 

The City of Neillsville will pay $3.00 per cord for cobblestone, delivered.  A cord constitutes 13,000 lbs.

 

The German Lutheran Congregation will hold their annual “Kinderfest” on June 20 at H. E. Bartell’s Grove.

 

Worship services will be held in the forenoon and refreshments will be served.  In the afternoon, there will be singing, music, games, and amusement of all kinds, for everyone.  Their famous ice cream and other foods will be served through-out the afternoon.

 

May 1949

 

Seven Neillsville High School musical groups and individuals will compete in the state contest in Madison on Saturday, May 14, as a result of their outstanding work in the district musical festival at Eau Claire recently.

 

“Plus Rating” winners under the direction of Miss Anna Rae Harris are:  Carole Wang, Erdis (Edris) Haack, Carol Thompson, Merline Naedler, Patricia Mattson, Lillian Chadwick and Marilyn Haas.

 

A 62 piece band, under the direction of Walter Keohane, placed first in Call B in its concert work, and second in marching.

 

The mixed chorus won a Class C first place rating.  In addition to the one-plus ratings received, the Neillsville individuals won the following first place ratings: Class A – Robert Scott and Keith Counsell, coronet solos; Carole Wang, piano: Hazel Millard, soprano solo.

 

Class B – Toddy Wall, baritone solo

 

Class C – Byron Trachte and Lois Larson, coronet solos; Charles Schultz, Trombone solo; Erdis (Edris) Haack, flute and piano solos; Diane Seif and Lillian Chadwick, clarinet solos; James Selk, saxophone solo; Donna Bush, alto vocal solo; Mary Ann Smith, vocal solo.

 

The Neillsville Rotary Club opened its “outdoor season” Tuesday night with a steak fry at the Rotary Park, three miles west of Neillsville along highway 10.

 

Presiding (at) the steak pit was Dr. M. V. Overman, chef’s cap and all, and superintending the carving was David Perry.

 

The event was coupled by the election of directors for the coming one year term.  Directors elected are: Arthur Epding, Harry Wasserberger, Dr. M. V. Overman, David Parry, Elliott Warlum, A. C. Covell and William Whaley.  John Mattson, as president, automatically becomes a member of the board.

 

Armand Hauge of Oslo, Norway, has been visiting his cousins, Ed Hauge, and Martin Hauge in Neillsville.  He is an executive for a perfume and cosmetics concern which operates through Northern Europe, and is spending some time in the United States on business.

 

The Neillsville High School has a new playground site.  Grading and seeding of a playground area on the new high school site, near the water standpipe, was completed this week.  The area is designed for use as a football practice field as well as baseball and softball practice area.  It will eliminate the necessity, next fall of high school gridders traveling nearly a mile to the fairground each night for practice, and the returning.  The work of leveling the ground was done by the big bulldozer of the County Soil Conservation Service.  Cost of the project was estimated by Supt. D. E. Peters to be about $100.

 

Russell Schoengarth of Hollywood, Calif., who film edited “The Egg and I” movie and several other motion picture hits, was visiting in Neillsville, Sunday and Monday.  He and his wife were guests at the home of Judge and Mrs. Oscar W. Schoengarth.  Russell and Oscar are second cousins.

 

Sgt. George J. Vobora of the Marine Corps, son of Mr. and Mrs. Tony Vobora, of Granton area, has sent home a trophy which he received for boxing.  The trophy has the following inscription: 1949 Virginia St ate A. A.U. champion, light heavyweight class.  George Vobora.

 

Vobora is a graduate of Neillsville High School with the class of 1945.  He enlisted in the Marine Corps in the fall of 1945 and presently is stationed on board of the U. S. S. Mississippi.

 

There are many dances to be held in the area.  This Saturday night, Levis Hall will have a dance with music by the Nemitz Band.  The next two Friday evenings, the Neillsville Legion Hall will have dance music, May 6, Maeder’s Orchestra and on May 13, Mardens Orchestra will play.  Don Steele & Orchestra will provide modern music for dancing at the Lake Shore Pavilion at Hixton on May 14.  The Silver Dome Ballroom will offer free admission to all ladies entering the hall before 9:30 every Saturday evening.  Howard Sturtz and his Swing Kings will play music for a wedding dance on Saturday, May 21.  The famous RCA Victory Recording Band, the Six Fat Dutchmen of New Ulm, Minn., will be at the Silver Dome Ballroom on Wednesday, May 25.  Admission is 90 cents per person, tax included.

 

John R. Bergemann, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gust Bergemann, of Granton, has taken over the ownership of the funeral home business operated in Neillsville for the last four years by Millard F. Cole. 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Everett pepper have sold their home on Court Street to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Kapusta.

 

Oscar DeMert has purchased the Belter farm on North Grand Avenue Road.  The DeMert’s took possession this week.  George Begley bought the house on Fifth Street which has been vacated buy (by) the DeMerts.  Mr. and Mrs. Walter Aumann moved onto the George Begley farm North of Neillsville, which he purchased some time ago.

 

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church has purchased approximately nine acres of land on the old Hewett farm site.  The property will be the site of the proposed combination church – school, toward which the congregation has been working for some time.

 

Purchase of the property was made from the Herman North’s’, who bought the property at an auction last April, after the Hewett house was destroyed by fire.

 

The well house, which stands west of the Hewett house site, and the timbers remaining on the home, have been purchased by Frank Meier, a member of the congregation.  He has started removing the timbers from the house and soon expects to raze the large well house.

 

The City of Neillsville, as it appeared in the late 1800s.  The era of horse drawn buggies and hacks, boardwalks, muddy streets and canvas awnings over the store fronts.  A fire hydrant on the northeast corner of the Hewett and Fifth Street intersection indicates the convenience of a water supply for fire fighting.

 

 


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