Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI; February 13, 2002, Page 24

Messrs. Hein & Meyer have closed a contract with James Hewett for the lumber and timber necessary for the building of their stave factory in Neillsville.

Miss Jennie Robinson, of Weston Rapids, was pleasantly surprised on Wednesday evening of last week by a large party of her young friends from this village. Music and dancing were the order of the evening and a grand good time was the result.

Capt. J. W. Ferguson and Lieut. Ludington, of the Sherman Guards, accompanied by E. H. Markey, drum major of the Third Battalion Wis. N.G., went to Madison last Tuesday evening to attend a meeting of the commissioned officers of the state militia.

The portion of our village known as the North Side is to become a busy portion of the village. This is made evident from the enterprise manifested by the residents of that vicinity. Within the past year, two stores, that of Balch & Son and James Furlong, have been established. A foundry and machine shop, pump-factory and blacksmith and repair shop have also been built up. These new businesses, as well as the stave factory of G. Sterns, who has long been identified with the interests there; shows the North Side to be already an important portion of our village.

The proprietorship of the Neillsville Brewery has been changed during the past week. The management of that institution is now in the hands of John Foster, to whom the premises have been leased. Foster was in the employ (of) Neverman for some time previous to the transfer of the property. Foster is known to be a thorough master of the business in which he engages.

On last Friday, Hon. R. J. MacBride introduced a bill in the legislature for the incorporation of our village under a city charter. Our city would be greatly benefited by the incorporation and this idea is greatly admitted to by even those who were formerly opposed to that move. Previously, the measure had been twice defeated.

R. J. McBride arrived in Neillsville at the age of 19, in October 1866 and started working as a clerk for Hewett & Woods Co. In his spare time, he gave his attention to reading law and in 1870 was admitted to the Bar. Elected as Clark County Judge, he served that position from 1870 to 1877 and was appointed alternate delegate to the National Convention that nominated Gen. Hancock for President of the United States.

Arthur Kluckman, of the Town of Weston, has a broken leg, between the ankle and the knee, happening Thursday, while working in august Green’s logging camp along Wedges Creek. He was felling timber when the injuries were received, caused by the rebound of a tree he had just felled. Kluckman was taken to his home soon after the accident and the fractured limb was dressed the following day by Dr. Templeton.

Alexander Hyslip, lumber inspector, while visiting one of John Paul’s camps on the Cunningham Creek, fell and dislocated his left shoulder. He was brought here soon after the accident. Dr. Gage, of Sparta, assisted by B. F. French, soon put Hyslip back into shape again. The accident will place him on the retired list for several weeks.

Last week was a bad one for their area loggers. Many camps quit hauling and a good number of teams left the woods. A few of the enterprising spirits, however; snow-covered their roads and worked nights, keeping their teams and men busy, enough to pay current expenses. Now the roads are good for traveling again, as the rain and sleet of Saturday has covered them with a good coating of ice. If the roads remain icy for two or three weeks, many of the logs will be moved and the companies will be in good shape money-wise.

Mr. Rose, who owns the mill in the Town of Fremont, is about to build a mill on the line between the Town of Sherman and the Town of Loyal, where the “26” road crosses the Meridian. It will be a great convenience to the people of that section and we think it will be a profitable investment for Mr. Rose. Another sawmill would find a good location in the east part of our township, on the Yellow River. If any of your readers have a good sawmill lying around loose, they could not do better than to put it in here.

We hear that Spencer is to have a two-story brick building in the spring. It will be quite a novelty in that wooden town and we hope to see the idea carried out. We will also soon have a photograph gallery in Spencer.

John Gardner, merchant at Spencer, has been pushing hay through our town this winter and shipping the baled product up the line. He says selling hay has not been very profitable this winter, as he contracted for a large amount in the fall, selling at two dollars per ton, more than what it is worth now.

A dispatch received from Madison states that the committee on claims has reported favorably on the bill to allow payment to the Clark County Agricultural Society. The state has appropriated $100, being forfeited by the failure of the fair last fall. The dispatch also states that the bill for the division of Clark County was killed. A petition had been made to the legislature in favor of initiating a new county, to be named Garfield. Clark County was being asked to contribute a portion of their territory. Several remonstrance letters against the new county scheme were sent in from this county area.

It takes a lot of planning to feed 450 people and there can be many a slip up. But at St. Hedwig’s Catholic Church one mile east of Thorp, dinner for 450 people went off in a beautiful style a week ago Saturday night.

The crowd was there to hear Senator Joseph McCarthy speak and he was the attraction. But there was another story behind the dinner. The comments that have been heard concerning the food are proof positive that such a meal can be done – hot, tastily, rapidly and well.

It was a tribute to the work of 35 to 40 members of St. Hedwig’s Parent-Teachers’ Association and to the careful planning and organization of Mrs. Tom Szatalowicz, in charge of the kitchen and Mrs. Paul Cukia and Mrs. A. S. Kenney who were in charge of the service.

To provide for the dinner, each of the association’s 200 members cooperated either with cash, food or service. Work began in St. Hedwig’s large hall at 10 a.m. that day.

There, in the small kitchen women worked with 100 chickens, 100 pounds of polish sausage, two cases of waxed beans and the other delicious morsels which made up the repast. From the 13 filled roasters, that evening, came delectable chicken. As a clincher, a pound of butter was dropped on top of each roaster-full of dressing, being allowed to melt and slowly seep in its mellow, gold tastiness.

Anyone of the 450 guests who ate this meal will agree without hesitation that it was about the best banquet dinner they had ever eaten.

One of the reasons behind this was the fact that everything was well organized, down to the last detail. Each woman had her assignment and she did it and did it well. That meant dispatch and service. Those who served the meal were strikingly dressed in black dresses, with white aprons. They presented an attractive and impressive sight.

A new method of combating icy streets has been found by City Engineer James Hanson. The city crew has been putting fine clinkers on the streets, which were obtained from the Neillsville Milk Products furnace. The clinkers take the iciness off of the streets.

“On slushy streets, the clinkers don’t settle the way sand does. Also, when there is a heavy snowfall, it doesn’t go through the way the sand does,” he explained.

City crews have used five tons of calcium chloride crystals and two tons of salt so far in their efforts to keep the streets passable. The chloride was used up two months ago, but more will be ordered.

The Town of Washburn and Clark County Highway workers started work this week, getting ready to construct a new 60-foot span bridge on the Cunningham Creek between sections three and four. It is known as the Kurth Corner, Pray road near the Clarence Reinart farm. The old bridge was erected about 60 to 65 years ago and has been condemned for several years. The new bridge will be located about 200 feet north of where the old one was. The creek will be straightened by digging a new channel. The new bridge, which will replace the old 14-foot wide bridge, will be 24 feet wide.

Labeled as “the best of them all,” Neillsville’s fifth annual invitational basketball tournament gets under way in the armory on Feb. 22 and 23.

Seven of the top independent teams of the area will be vying for $140 in cash prizes. Elimination games are scheduled Friday and Saturday nights, with the semi-finals coming Sunday afternoon. The consolation and championship will be decided Sunday evening.

Among the top-ranking teams of the area to appear will be the Abbotsford Guards, who have two victories over the Neillsville All-Stars this season. Jim Firnstahl, star of the one-time “hot” Unity Tigers quintet and Dave Case, six-foot, two-inch center are standouts on the Abbotsford Squad.

The Eau Claire Royals will run hard on into the All-Stars at 8:45 p.m. Friday. Preceding this tilt will be the tournament opener at 7:30 p.m., pitting Nekoosa and Osseo.

Osseo has been strengthened by the addition of six-foot, four-inch Vic Hanson, center and backboard artist.

Saturday night’s games will pit (put) Marathon against the strong Abby guards at 7:30 p.m. and the highly-touted Eau Claire Leif Conocos against Stout of Menomonie at 8:45 p.m.

The Marathon team, better known by their nickname of the “Wee Willys,” features an unbeatable five-brother combination of Szymanski, who have played together for several seasons.

The Eau Claire Leif Conocos team won the championship last year, beating the All-Stars.

Thirty-seven years young is the age of the Neillsville Chapter of the Loyal Order of the Moose. The members, their wives, Women of the Moose and their husbands and visiting members took part in the birthday party held on Sunday evening.

In the afternoon the Wausau degree team, that has won state honors put on the initiation. Those initiated included Jim Jordahl, R. D. Peters, Earl Zille, Bud Schiller, Art Hubing, George Holub, Clarence Reinhardt, Ed Holub, Ralph Northup and Gordon Sharratt.

The Women of the Moose entertained the wives at the Merchants Hotel during the initiation, which was put on at the American Legion Hall.

In the evening, 160 people were present for a turkey dinner at St. Mary’s hall. Roy Wing, state director of the Moose, presided as master (of ceremonies, and the presentation) of a diamond pin to Don Champoux, governor of the local lodge, in recognition of Champoux’s work in signing up 53 new members.

Four charter members and the wife of one other charter member were honored at the dinner. They included Blucher Paulus, Ora Crockett, Mrs. Bill Swenson, Tom Winters and George Zimmerman.

The chapter originally held its meetings in the Modern Woodman Hall, a building east of the B&F Machine shop.

The Clark County Highway Commission has purchased a new gravel crushing plant at a cost of $40,485. This plan (plant) was the low bid at the recent bid opening, a trade-in of $14,555 having been allowed on the old plant. The plant, a Cunningham-Ortmayer Cedar Rapids crusher, is priced at $55,000 without the trade-in.

The plant will be moved from gravel pit to gravel pit throughout the county as needed.

The highway commission also purchased outright a four-door sedan after rejecting all bids. The cost of the new car was $2,622 minus a trade-in allowance of $1,402 on another car.

Charter members of St. Mary’s Catholic Parish at Greenwood were honored at the church’s new grade school’s grand opening last Thursday evening. Only two of the three living charter members could be present, Mrs. Anna Volk and Mrs. Harry Hogue, both of Greenwood. Mr. Hogue, the third living charter member, was ill and unable to be present.

There are 76 students at Neillsville High School who are taking the Driver Education Course, Ivan W. Lauscher, principal, announced. This is the eleventh year that the course has been offered.

It will be Dollar Days in Neillsville on February 22 and 23. There will be bargains galore in the Neillsville stores during that time. This even (event) is being sponsored for the first time by the Neillsville Chamber of Commerce which was organized last fall.

Among the $1 bargains facing shoppers when stores open Friday morning are brooms, which usually sell for $1.59; enough wallpaper to paper a room, a $3.19 value; house brooms, worth $1.49; three-tine pitch forks, usually sold at $2.19; barn shovels, usually at $1.49; rayon panties, four for $1; handkerchiefs, 20 for $1; paint at $1 per quart; a limited amount of inlaid linoleum at $1 per square yard; and 7” milk strainer filters at $1 a box.

Other specials include chocolate dipped peanuts at 39c a pound, which usually sell at 60c a pound; enamel water pails at 89c; and plastic half-aprons at 15c apiece.

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