Clark County Press, Neillsville,

December 1, 2004, Page 14

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

December 1869

 

Hewett & Woods are building near their new saw mill on the Humbird Road. There are two new houses, one to be used as a warehouse and the other as a hotel.  The travel upon the road is constantly increasing and it is seemed practicable to start a hotel there for the accommodation of travelers.

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Notwithstanding the present hard times, George Lloyd and Company will be putting in a logging crew on Rock Creek.  They expect to get in about two million feet of logs this year.

 

Free Lindsay will log on the East Fork this winter.  He starts for the woods tomorrow and before spring will have two million feet of logs on the riverbank.  We’ll bet on him.

••••••••••

The price of hops is advancing and people in the hop growing regions are getting excited. The crop in England and Germany has been a failure.  Instead of exporting many thousand bales per annum, the latter country has not raised enough for its own consumption.  Germany has sent heavy orders for hops to New York City.  Hops are reported worth 20 to 23 cents per pound in Sauk County and the price is going up at the rate of one cent per day.  Fifty cents is predicted as a probable price soon.  We hope this may be so and that it may have the good effect of enabling hop growers to recover the severe losses of last year.

••••••••••

Deer are very plentiful in our woods this winter.  A good many hunters are after the deer.  It isn’t everybody that knows how to bring them down, though.  Sam Green, one of our best shots went out last week, getting five deer in three days.  As some other hunters have said, they have found venison to be a good cash crop.

 

A couple hunters think they have found a certain place in this county, where there is a rich gold mine. They did find a substance having an appearance of metal. They say it was in a rock, like quartz.  They are about to give it a severe test.  One of them enthusiastically remarks that if it is gold, there is plenty of it, enough to pay the national debt!  Then it certainly is most a valuable discovery, but, “all is not gold that glitters.”

••••••••••

Hans Johnson, of the O’Neill House, who can provide his guests to as comfortable of a bed as may be found in any of our public houses, is not really content with this distinction alone.  He has now placed upon the corner, near his hotel, a street lamp to guide the way for worn travelers to his hospitable quarters.  C. Blakeslee, merchant at the old stand of J. P. Thompson & Company, imitates the example, having now placed a lamp in front of his establishment.

••••••••••

The streets of our village, last Friday and Saturday, were filled with teams of horses from the country.  The stores were filled with customers and a pretty lively business was going on generally.  It is pleasing to witness the changes that have taken place here within a few years.  Instead of an occasional farmer’s team and the balance of “tote” teams for the pineries, a greater number of the former is now very often to be seen in our village. This envisions the gratifying fact, that while our timber wealth is suffering heavy encroachments, our agricultural resources are being rapidly developed and our population increased by an industrious class of husbandmen.

••••••••••

Shop at C. E. Adams & Company in Neillsville.  They have just received a large invoice of various shawls, buffalo and wool robes.  They have new styles of delaines and dress goods.  Also, on hand, 2,000 pounds of choice crock butter, which is on sale.

••••••••••

P. S. Dudley, manufacturer and dealer in harnesses and other leather products, in this village, is an agent for the sale of prepared Vacuum Oil Blacking.  Manufactured in Rochester, N. Y., it is said to soften and preserve leather and adds greatly to its durability.  It renders boots and shoes soft and impervious to water, also doesn’t prevent a good polish being made over it with ordinary boot blacking.

••••••••••

The Chippewa River steamers, after doing a good freighting business this season, have laid up at La Crosse to undergo improvements and renovations for next spring’s opening.

••••••••••

Len Stafford intends to get up one of the grandest balls of the season to be held at his place, in Staffordville, on New Year’s Eve. The mere announcement is sufficient to put all lovers of the dance on notice and ensures them a grand old time for the occasion. With a dance at O’Neill’s Hall for Christmas Eve and at Stafford’s Hall, on New Years Eve, those who indulge in the poetry of motion may look forward to an enjoyable holiday season.

 

December 1939

 

Attention deer hunters!  Stop in at the Coast-to-Coast Store in Black River Falls where you can get deer heads mounted.  They look as natural as life itself. All mountings are light in weight and all will not lose their color or shape.  An average deer head, with or without shoulder mount, $10; they will do any pose you desire.

 

Buckskin tanning is $1.50 per deer hide.  Gloves made for 75c to 85c per pair.  Tanned jackets, made to order, $6.75 to $8.50 each.

 

Deer heads with hides will be bought.

••••••••••

Art Carl, local contractor, will make any size storm sash you may need.  He will also do furnace repairs and installation.  Bring your heating problems to him.

••••••••••

The price of milk in the Neillsville market, as determined by the American Stores Dairy Company, is $1.50 per hundred pounds for standard 3.5 grade milk.  This is the rate at which checks have been sent out for the first half of November.  The payment is a further increase of five cents per hundred over the rate paid for the last half of October.

••••••••••

From six to 12 school districts in Clark County will be faced with the problem of operating next year with reduced state and county aid or closing their schools entirely, as was estimated by Clark County Superintendent L. M. Millard.

 

The problem, one which 600 to 800 school districts of Wisconsin must wrestle with between now and next September, comes as a result of recent enactment by the State Legislature of the “small school” law.  Under its provisions, schools with more than one pupil and less than 10 in average daily attendance shall receive a total of $50 per pupil.  Twenty-five dollars per pupil will come as state aid and the remaining $25 will come from the county.

 

Heretofore, every school, regardless of the number of pupils in average daily attendance, received $250, pro rated, from the state and a similar amount from the county.  In addition, schools were eligible to receive up to $350 equalization aid, the amount depending on the assessed valuation of the district.

 

Under the new law, Mr. Millard explained, school districts with less than 10 pupils in average daily attendance will not be entitled to equalization aid.

 

Although the new law went into effect September 1 of this year, school districts will not be affected until the opening of the next school year because of the fact that aids being paid at present are for last year’s operation, Mr. Millard said.

••••••••••

H. H. Van Gorden & Sons elevator, in Neillsville, is having a carload sale.  You may buy a carload of barley with 30 percent wheat for $23 per ton, $1.25 per cwt.  They also have dairy feed for $25 per ton, $1.30 cwt.

••••••••••

Happy to be in the harness once again, George A. Ure, appointed Police Justice late last week to fill the unexpired term of Judge A. E. Dedley (Dudley), took over his new duties in the city hall Monday morning.  Judge Dudley died December 5 after being stricken by a heart attack.

 

Mr. Ure’s appointment, made by Mayor H. J. Naedler, was among four written applications for the position.  The city council, called in special session on Thursday night, unanimously approved the appointment.

 

The filing of a bond with the clerk of circuit court, Saturday, gave Mr. Ure the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace in Clark County, enabling his court to preside over cases brought in under county ordinance and other work of a justice of the peace.

 

A man of wide experience and one who has had close contact with court work in public life, Mr. Ure was seen as particularly well fitted for the position.  He held the office of clerk of circuit court in Clark County for 18 years, starting January 1, 1911, under Judge James O’Neill and continuing through reelection, under Judge Emery W. Crosby.

 

A former member of the county board of supervisors, Mr. Ure was chairman of the Town of Lynn from 1902 to 1911.  For five or six years, during that time, he served as chairman of the board.  He resigned this position in December of 1910 to take up the office of clerk of circuit court.

 

For 25 years, Mr. Ure served as secretary of the Lynn Mutual Insurance companies.  During that time, he was a member of the board of directors, a position, which he holds at present.

 

In private life, Judge Ure had had a widely varied career, ranging from timber scaler during the early days of Clark County, to a railroad fireman, stockholder in a Mexican rubber plantation, prospector in the Alaskan gold rush of 1898, part owner of the Republican News and former president of the First National Bank in Neillsville.

 

For five years, back at the turn of the century, Mr. Ure served as captain of the local National Guard unit.  At present his son, Melvin D. Ure, is a captain in the R. O. T. C., on active CCC duty in Murphysboro, Ill.

••••••••••

Two sights in Clark County have a world of meaning to Frank Lang, an old timer.  They are Cawley Creek and the big barn, which his neighbor, John Zajac, built this spring.  He goes over the creek, traveling to and from Neillsville.  It is now the inconspicuous stream just north of the Imig schoolhouse. The Zajac barn he sees every time he looks that way, for his barn and that of John Zajac are both in section nine, Town of Seif.

 

Cawley Creek means a lot to Frank Lang because on it he used to drive logs in the old days. Then, the stream was something, with swift running water in the spring and plenty of it.  Mr. Lang used to ride the logs in it and occasionally he slipped off and took a wetting.  If now days we hear great tales of the prowess of the man who rode the logs, the glamour would some how be lessened if we could know how many times they lost their footing and went into the drink.  Often, so says Mr. Lang, and he ought to know, for he admits to many dunkings.

 

It was dangerous business. To break a logjam meant imminent peril, with everybody for himself.  If you were in the way of flying logs, you had to get out on your old steam.  Everybody else was busy with his own affairs.  Having braved the perils of flying and rolling logs in the day, the men slept in tents along the stream in April, with the spring rains running under them as they tried to sleep.  They gathered up rheumatic twinges, to last them into the days of lesser perils.

 

Twenty-five years ago, Frank Lang went out into the wilderness of the Town of Seif.  He undertook to clear a farm and has done that.  He has 120 acres and to farm it is simple now, compared to the labors of clearing it and farming it when tree stumps were thick.  Then, the stumps were so thick that a wagon could not be driven in the field.  The hay was cut with a scythe and carried to the wagon.  When the hay was in the barn for the season, it was a great accomplishment.  The work was much different upon the Zajac farm this summer, using modern machinery to get hay in the new barn.

 

That barn speaks to Mr. Lang of the new Clark County.  To him, it looks good and life in it relatively easy, as compared with the labor of the pioneers.  To plow, plant and harvest is easy now, when the wagons, tractors and machinery, on wheels, move easily in the open fields.  In the old days, it did not take a barn 100 feet long, like that of John Zajac, to hold the harvest of hay.  Nor were there 35 milch cows to consume it.

 

So the world looks good to Frank Lang, at age 62, as he does his chores and takes it a little easier.  He leans a little, without shame, upon his son, Harold, age 24, who also likes the farm.  Father and son respect John Zajac as an enterprising neighbor who has built for himself and has thus built for his progressive neighborhood.

••••••••••

Christmas shopping specials in Neillsville:

 

A tasty tip from Santa this Christmas, give natural Wisconsin cheese, fully aged, in special gift packs, 75c.

 

The practical gift often brings the most pleasure, such as a new, motor-driven, Maytag wringer washer.  Some models are as low as $59.95, at the Neillsville Maytag store, with John Schiesel, as the proprietor.

 

Unger’s Shoe Store has many slippers, a sensible gift priced from 39c to $1.95, men’s women’s and children’s.

 

Greet the holidays with a new triple oil permanent wave at Mi-Lady’s Beauty Shoppe.  The special holiday offer is $3.00.

 

Berger and Quinlan can solve your gift list problems.  Men’s neckties, Wembley wrinkle-proof, in a gift box, are only $1.00 each.  Fruit-of-the-Loom men’s shirts, with extra wear collar, in new shades $1.65.  Arrow white shirts, body fit, $2.00, in a gift box.

 

Eva’s Fashion Shoppe has lovely gifts for the women.  Assorted styles of hats are from $1.00 to $2.95 each.  Dress gloves are priced from $1.00 to $2.98.  Buy a beautiful new housecoat, a personal gift, chenille or silk satins, priced from $2.95 to $8.95, each.

 

Stop in at Frank E. Brown’s store to see a large selection of gift ideas.  He has rings, lockets, electrical appliances, silverware, clocks and wristwatches.

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   The above photo was taken in the late 1800s in a Wisconsin logging camp, including lumberjacks and other personnel, which depicts a typical crew needed for harvesting the large timber in that era.

 

 


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