Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

September 7, 2005

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled and Contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 September 1880

 

That abominable row of posts in front of George Lloyd’s store, which had the effect of hiding the front of the finest building in town as well as that of blocking Main Street with teams, has been removed.

* * *

On Thursday afternoon and evening, of next week, the ladies of the Catholic congregation here, will hold a festival and fair. It will be held in the Furlong building, on Main Street, north of O’Neill Creek.  The festival is being held for the purpose of raising funds with which to assist in ridding the indebtedness of their church.  It is the intention of the ladies in charge to make the entertainment worthy of liberal patronage.  Refreshments will consist of all the delicacies that can be procured, to be served from 4 p.m. until midnight.  Aside from the usual social enjoyments, good music and other attractive features will be the evening’s entertainment.

* * *

Two hundred pairs of heavy pegged calf-hide women’s shoes can be bought at Hewett’s, for $1.00 per pair.

* * *

Fairbank’s Celebrated Ice-Pressed Lard Oil, the finest lubricating oil ever brought to Neillsville, can be purchased at Myers Bros’ Store.

* * *

The Dorchester Mill, one of the best sawmills on the line of the Wisconsin Central Railway, was totally destroyed by fire on Thursday, of last week.

The mill was shut down for dinner and the men had gone to their respective boarding places.  They had barely seated themselves at the table when the mill whistle sounded the alarm of fire.  The entire population of the village rushed out of doors and discovered that the roof of the engine house, over the boilers and near the smoke stack was on fire.  Before the men could reach the mill, the entire roof was in flames.  As all effort to save the mill would be hopeless, attention was turned to the piles of lumber and shingles with which the mill was surrounded. Men, women and children performed good service in carrying water in buckets to the fire fighters.  By almost superhuman efforts, the lumberyard was saved, not a board being burned and only 3,000 shingles were destroyed.  The yard contained about 5,000,000 feet of lumber, with 2,000,000 feet being the property of the Sanford & Rowell, of Freeport, Ill, Dusen & Co.  The balance belonged to O.D. Van Dusen & Co., of Dorchester, the latter firm also having about 3,000,000 shingles piled in the yard.

The burned mill was built about five years ago and was one of the best on the line, having run only about two years.

The water-tank on the Wisconsin Central, formerly located at Colby, has been removed to Abbotsford Junction.

* * *

The piers on the Dells Dam will be completed in about two weeks. Then the work of erecting the bridge will be commenced. At best, it will be several weeks before the road will be open to travel.

The present prospects are that neither the Dells Dam Bridge nor the bridge at the mouth of Wedge’s Creek will be built before the fall rains.

* * *

B.F. Brown and A.S. Eaton, of Greenwood, returned from their second prairie chicken hunt, the later part of last week. They brought back an abundance of game, a portion of which they distributed among friends. Frank Brown returned with a splendid driving team of horses, on the trip.

* * *

Last Tuesday night, some person, or persons, entered the garden of Daniel Gates, here. They stole his entire crop of onions, amounting to something like 15 bushels. The thieving crowd tried their hands on a bed of carrots, at the same time, but found that kind of theft too laborious. They were satisfied with a limited supply of carrots.

September 1930

Mr. Leo Winiecki of Chicago and Miss Margaret Bukovec of Willard were married Sunday, Aug. 31, at the Catholic Church hall in Willard. Rev. Fr. Novak officiated (at) the wedding service.

The groom, who has always lived in Chicago, is a railway brakeman. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bukovec. She grew up at Willard, but has been employed in Chicago most of the time lately. The young couple left Tuesday, for Chicago, where they will reside.

* * *

Over half of the farms in Wisconsin buy feed and it is estimated that an average of $200 is spent annually for feed on those farms, which do not grow all the feed they require. Feeds purchased by Wisconsin farmers, in order of importance according to tonnage are: mill feeds 33 per cent, commercial mixed feeds 26 per cent, grain 14 per cent, ground feeds 12 per cent, high protein unmixed feeds 10 per cent and all other feeds 5 per cent.

* * *

Funds have been deposited to pay the interest and principal due Sept. 15, 1930, on the Mortgage Certificates on the Grandstand of the Clark County Agricultural Society.

You are asked to make prompt presentation of your certificate on, or after, September 15, 1930.

* * *

The Fremont Local of the Farmers Union is planning a Harvest Picnic, to be held on Saturday, Sept. 20 at Neina’s Grove one block south of the Chili depot.  Fred Frank, Herbert Adler and Jos. W. Reichert are the picnic committee.  Mr. Frank and Mr. Reichert were both on the committee for the Clark County Picnic held at Greenwood, which was such a success.  They hope with the aid of Mr. Adler, and others interested, to make this picnic also a success.

There will be a hot lunch and free coffee.  Refreshments will be served. Contests will be held for the young and old, with prizes awarded.

* * *

C.C. Sniteman reviews his long career here in Neillsville:

“No matter what men do, if they will keep at it and are not extravagant, they can make a success of life.”

That statement was made by C.C. Sniteman, oldest and longest established Neillsville business man on active duty as he reached his 80th milestone in his life, Sept. 17th. He talked of things that had impressed him during his remarkable career here, which dates back to the afternoon of January 15, 1879, when he drove into this city in the old stage over the corduroy road from Humbird.  Neillsville was only a few shanties and cheaply constructed store buildings in the heart of a vast forest.  The stage stopped in front of the O’Neill House and Mr. Sniteman, a young man of 29, carried his baggage into the lobby. He warmed his hands for a few minutes in front of the big wood stove and got a room for the night so that he might look over the prospects of the new logging town, the following day. But Mr. Sniteman kept the room longer than one night. To be exact, it was 30 years later that he quit living there and 40 years later when he stopped boarding in the famous old hostelry.

Mr. Sniteman is the kind of person people like to talk to. He has ideas that reveal a deep and penetrating philosophy of life, a youthful outlook, keenly alert to the trend of the times. His opinions are valued because they are rooted in a background of far reaching experiences and unquestioned integrity. Mr. Sniteman and Neillsville have always seemed an inseparable unity and the thought of one brings to mind the other.

A good many people have an idea that success is largely luck,” said Mr. Sniteman.  “Luck may have something to do with the start of as business, but luck will not keep it going.  People are quite apt to forget to make their business a business.  They would rather let it run itself and are very much surprised when it ceases to be profitable.  If you want to make a success of anything, keep working; never let up. The formula is simple, but only a few are willing to follow through.”

As evidence that Mr. Sniteman is a firm believer in his own theory is the fact that for half a century he has been one of the first to reach the store in the morning and the last one to leave at night when he closes between 11 and 12 p.m. One day a week, Sunday, he takes off.

“If I had a pension or a million dollars I would do exactly as I am doing now,” said Mr. Sniteman.  “I am used to work and I like it. My first job in a drug store was Peoria, Ill., when I was 14 years old.  I was paid $5 a month for working from 6 in the morning until 12 midnight.  To make it easier to get to work that early, I slept in the drug store and incidentally, got away from room expense.  At the age of 18, I went to Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania and took up the study of pharmacy, returning to work in Peoria from 1871 to 1875.”

While in Peoria, Mr. Sniteman purchased a fourth interest in the Allaire Woodward & Co., a concern still manufacturing botanical drugs and insect powders.  While thus engaged, he contracted malaria and was advised to go west for his health.  When the western climate failed to help him, doctors advised pineries of northern Wisconsin or Minnesota and it happened that Mr. Sniteman picked out Neillsville, which was then the center of a vast pine region.

When Mr. Sniteman arrived in this community, a drug store in a wooden building was being run on the site of the present C.C. Sniteman store, by Dr. John C. Lacey.  Dr. Lacey had come here from Monroe, Wis.   At the site of the present Kearns’ drug store was another drug store, also in a wooden building and run by a Dr. Crandall.  About that time, Mr. Lacey lost his drug store through failure to repay a loan from Henry Meyers, a logger. Mr. Meyers then employed Mr. Sniteman to run the store for him.  Later, Mr. Meyers sold a half interest to his brother, Lige.  Later, Mr. Sniteman bought out, first Henry’s interest, then Henry’s brother in the fall of 1881.

Under Mr. Sniteman’s management, the store grew rapidly and in 1895 it was necessary to enlarge the premises.  The present store building was erected and became Neillsville’s finest structure, even today being considered one of the best equipped drug stores in the Middle West.

In the 51 years that he has been in business here, he has filled a half-million prescriptions, 421,325 to be exact.  Through his filing system it is possible for Mr. Sniteman to fine prescription No. 1 almost as quickly as the last one filled.  Among the prescriptions of 1881 are the names of Mrs. Cross, M. Murphy, L. Lazotte, M.C. Gates, Dud Manes, J.W. Lynch, Jerry Isham, Louis Rossman and Hi Palmer.

The Sniteman Drug Store, purchased by Charles C. Sniteman in 1881, continued to be owned and operated, in Neillsville, by Mr. Sniteman for many years. The above photo was taken while there were three pharmacists working in the business. At the far left, David Perry and C.C. Sniteman, at the far right, George Sontag.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Roberts’ family collection)

 

 

 


© Every submission is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

 

Show your appreciation of this freely provided information by not copying it to any other site without our permission.

 

Become a Clark County History Buff

 

Report Broken Links

A site created and maintained by the Clark County History Buffs
and supported by your generous donations.

 

Webmasters: Leon Konieczny, Tanya Paschke,

Janet & Stan Schwarze, James W. Sternitzky,

Crystal Wendt & Al Wessel

 

CLARK CO. WI HISTORY HOME PAGE