|
|
|
Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin April 6, 2011, Page 11 Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press" Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon. Index of "Oldies" Articles
Compiled by Dee Zimmerman
Clark County News |
April 1911
Northern Wisconsin will not send out its usual supply of maple sugar and maple syrup this year, according to reports. Not only is the supply of sap coming from standing maples limited, but owing to the in-rush of settlers, the areas of sugar maples have been greatly decreased. What sugar is turned out, however, will bring big returns, judging from present high prices.
Having bought an auto, I will sell one of my driving horses, 5-years old, broke, kind and afraid of nothing; also a surrey, double harness, breaking cart & other tack. Dr. W. A. Leason
Preparations are being made to start the building of a pickle factory just east of the stockyards in Granton, as soon as the lumber is put on the grounds. Granton will be all in pickles this summer.
George Hales and Miss Mary Krejci were united in marriage on Wednesday evening, March 29 at the home of the brides parents in the Town of York.
Begin to fast up as Easter Sunday will soon be here and you will certainly want to eat at least a couple of dozen eggs apiece.
The annual Easter Supper will be held at the Congregational Church Tuesday, April 13th.
Menu: Potato Salad, Deviled Eggs, Sliced meats, Pork and Beans, Pickles, Horseradish, Orange Jello, Orange Sherbet, Cake & Coffee.
News from Superior, Wis. March 28th:
A crowd of a thousand turned out there this week, to welcome a special train, consisting of Pullman and emigrant cars from the West. The train proved to be a veritable Noahs Ark containing ten families, farming implements, horses, cattle, pigs, chickens and household articles. It was welcomed with all the ardor usually put into the welcome accorded the Presidents Special. The train is one of a series, coming in from Broken Bow, Neb. And is the vanguard of a back to the East movement, started by former farmers of the Middle West, who have settled in the West.
The Globe band boys will give an Easter dance at Susie Thomas barn on April 21st.
Mr. Simens, who had bought the farm joining A. Rentz place in the Chili area, had finished building a log barn and a frame house on the place with the help of some neighbors. He then moved his family in on Saturday, having to turn right around and move them out along with their household goods, back to Appleton on Monday. It seems that his wife did not like the farm being built in the wild where there was not enough clearing around the place to turn around on.
One of the finest homes to be built in Clark County is that of Jos. P. LaStofka in the Town of York, just completed this year. It is built entirely of concrete blocks including the porch, and is a very handsome structure. It is equipped with a hot water heating plant, having hot and cold water throughout and has every convenience of a modern home.
A rabbit is supposed to be a timid animal, but Henry Herian has a tame rabbit that is a fighter. Henry has a gander that is something of a scrapper and has made everything around the place side-step, until the rabbit began to assert its rights. The rabbit won out in the fight and now each day drives the gander to the farther end of the pasture and standing guard each day, keeps the fowl from coming back to the house. Often the rabbit has to be called off in order to let the gander come home at night.
The railroad company has purchased land west of Dells Dam, for a new gravel pit: A. Olsen has sold his farm of 80 acres; C. F. Waller 160 acres and J. Farnsworth sold 40 acres for the pit area.
The Geo. E. Crothers farm has Purebred Plymouth Rock eggs for hatching. Inquire at the farm or Press office.
The cheese factory west of the Town of York and known as the Andrus plant resumed operations last Monday morning with quite a good patronage.
A. C. Turner made a trip to the County seat last Friday. A new plow and wagon accompanied him home.
Now as for automobiles; there are scared horses, frightened women and commotion in general.
A rattling game of baseball was played last Sunday. The boys are now looking for and wishing to rent a plot of ground in South Pine Valley to play games on for the season.
Chicken thieves are busy prowling around these nights in the Town of Hewett area. They robbed the roost of Mrs. D. Jeffers and also that of Jake Laager, leaving only three hens. At one other place, visited by the thieves, they were discovered and are known, even if they did hurry off in their buggy.
April 1941
An open house will be held at Camp Perkinstown, in which several Clark County boys are located, in celebration of the eighth anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps, April 6. The program will start at 1 p.m. with demonstrations of activities of the enrollees in camp and at work. Camp facilities and project equipment will be demonstrated and refreshments will be served, according to the announcement of Ralph C. Bangsberg, camp superintendent.
Clark County furnished 25 more men for the nations rapidly expanding armed forces Monday, bringing the total under the selective service and to date, that of 69.
The men representing the largest single contingent yet to be called from Clark County left the local board headquarters at Loyal shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday for Milwaukee and induction into federal service, for at least a year of training.
Upward of 300 fathers, mothers, relatives and friends crowded the sidewalk before the local board headquarters to witness the departure. They closed in around the Greyhound bus as it prepared to leave. And, finally it was necessary for Traffic Officer Lewis Bradbury and the Loyal constable to clear the road in order that the bus might get under way.
Although 26 men were called to fill the quota, only 25 reported. The absentee was Phillip Schnettler, Jr., of Thorp, who was transferred for delivery from Dane County.
Speaking briefly to the contingent before it went from the local board headquarters to the bus, John Wuethrich of Greenwood, a member of the local board, offered a slogan for the group: Impossible if Un-American.
Urging the selectees to make the most of their army experience, Mr. Wuethrich declared this may be the turning point for you if you are ambitious.
The good wishes and confidence of all of us are placed in you, he said.
The contingent was under the leadership of Walter G. Keller of Neillsville between the time if left and its arrival at the induction center Monday morning. Being appointed as assistant leader was Richard Rakovec of Greenwood.
The mens ages are ranging from Harry J. Free of Thorp the oldest at 35, to Earl D. Raab of Loyal, the youngest at 21. All are single men.
Making up the contingent were:
Earl R. Raab of Loyal, 21; John Petranovich, Jr., 26, of Thorp; Walter C. Boxrucker, 23, of Thorp; Bernard F. Bruchert, 23, of Withee; Fred F. Ortin, 28; Elmer Thomas Kreplin, 26, of Stanley; Richard F. Rakovec; Nick Kaplar, 26, of Withee; Mike Kohniak, 24, Withee; William F. Zassenhaus, 29; Harold E. Kademan, 23, Colby; Herbert E. Hederer, 24, Colby; John L. Romanowski, 22, Lublin; Clarence L. Anklam, 27, Humbird; Edward T. Galenski, 24, Thorp; Joseph M. Kaczor, 26, Neillsville; Charles A. Cernik, 26, Neillsville; Walter G. Keller, 33, Neillsville, Adam F. Roohr, 29, Unity; Frank J. Kutzler, 24, Unity; Norman Paul, 24, Curtiss; Joseph C. Baskovec, Willard; Lawrence Richard Walter, Greenwood; Arthur Reinholt Klabon, Withee.
Of the 25 answering the call, 10 were volunteers.
The bottom went out of Clark Countys roads and highways last weekend.
It was the worst spring breakup in the last 10 years, according to Otto J. Weyhmiller, County highway commissioner.
Concrete, black top and plain dirt side roads, alike were not spared as the bottom fell out; and on Sunday and Monday traffic was at a virtual standstill.
Travel on main concrete highways had dwindled to a bare trickle Monday; and for the first time in many years farmers were forced to resort to teams of horses to get their milk to neighborhood cheese factories.
Yes, the roads could be worse; they have been worse. They were worse, for instance in 1878 or 1879 that time when an ox bogged down on the Hewett hill and never got out again alive.
The story of that ox came to the memories of W. J. Marsh and J. F. Schuster recently when they were talking of mud and old times. They both recalled how it happened. The team of oxen was called into service to bring into town the freight, which had come in by train to the old depot on the west side of the river. Horses could not get through the mud, but oxen managed it until finally one of them mired completely and sank so deeply that it all but disappeared, head, back and all.
Tremendous efforts were made to get the ox out, but they were unavailing. Finally, the animal was shot, to put it out of its misery.
This incident happened on the Hewett hill, just in front of the present Indian School. The people of today drive over the same spot now concrete, never dreaming that the bog was once so deep there as to take the life of a large ox.
(The Hewett Hill, was on what we now know as West Fifth Street and formerly the route of Hwy 10, as it makes it descent down to the Black River. The Hewett farmstead was located on the north side of the Street with the Hewett home being located on the present site of St. Johns Lutheran Church. D. Z.)
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Luchterhand of Loyal were pleasantly surprised on their 45th wedding anniversary, Easter Sunday. The following guests were present: Mr. and Mrs. William Luchterhand and family of Nasonville, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Luchterhand and family of Spokeville, Mr. and Mrs. Reno Herdrich and family, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Vick and Mr. and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Wehling, all of Loyal, and Mr. and Mrs. Edward Greeler and family of Neillsville. The dinner and supper were prepared and furnished by the guests.
James Milton has purchased the old H. N. Withee property on the North Side from Mrs. Robert Kurth. The house was built in the early 1880s while Mr. Withee was serving as County treasurer. He held the office from 1880 to 1893.
(The H. N. Withee house is located on the west side of Grand Ave. about a block north of the ONeill Creek Bridge. D. Z.)
Oscar Reisner, a trucker, went driving in the mud on the County line road just south of Hwy 10. He ran his truck into the mud and the wheels on the left went down toward China. That was about a week ago. Efforts were made to get the truck out, and then Mr. Reisner came down with the mumps. He was stuck in the home of Rudy Sternitzky, where he lives in the town of Lynn, and his truck was stuck in the mud on the County line.
The town caterpillar came along on Tuesday and pulled the truck back to the concrete. Thus the road was cleared and the truck was free to move on.
The first Defense Bond to be sold in Neillsville was purchased at the post office at the opening of business Thursday morning by The Clark County Press. The bond cost $18.75 and will mature in ten years at $25. At the same time and to the same purchaser there was sold by the local post office the first Defense Saving Stamps of each denomination, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and $5.
(Citizens were encouraged to invest in Savings Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps, a means of assisting in our countrys defense program, initiated in 1941. D. Z.)
Christian M. Stricker, 56, this week, was notified that his application for a pension had been granted after working 34 years as a telegraph operator for the Omaha Railroad Co.
Due to ill health, Mr. Stricker was forced to retire Sept. 27, 1940, shortly after returning to the Neillsville station, for which he has served 15 of the preceding 20 years.
Starting in the railroad service in Wescott on May 25, 1906, Mr. Stricker has seen service in several locations along the lines of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha railroad, and among them Rockmont, Hayward, Black River Falls, Merrillan, Fairchild, Neillsville and Marshfield.
There have been exciting experiences, too, in those 34 years of railroad activity; but few of them compare with the scare he had while operating in Neillsville about 15 years ago. Only the quick action of local railway men prevented what might have been a disastrous train wreck.
An eastbound passenger train was due in from Merrillan in the afternoon. As the tracks from Merrillan to Marshfield were single then, as now, there should have been no west bound traffic over the stretch at that time.
But to the east, and close by, the local station men heard the unmistakable whistle of an approaching freight. Quickly they put up the signals against the freight. The action came just in the nick of time and a crash was averted.
For sometime afterward Mr. Stricker fairly shook in his boots. It had been too close for comfort. And the man in Marshfield responsible for letting the freight through was relieved of his job because of the incident.
Memories such as that make Mr. Stricker wish he were back in the harness and railroad officials have provided for that possibility. A job will be waiting for him at any time he is able to return to his work.
Mr. and Mrs. Stricker are the parents of two children. The daughter, Miss Verna Stricker, is a teacher in the Granton schools, and the son, Harry C. Sticker (Stricker), is stationed with the National Guard in Camp Shelby, Miss.
| The muddy, impassable roads in the spring of 1941 forced local farmers to resort to horse-drawn wagons in hauling the filled milk cans daily, to a nearby cheese factory such as the above photo taken near the Pleasant Ridge Cheese Factory, which shows some of its customers chatting as they waited in line to unload their milk cans on their wagons. Pleasant Ridge Cheese Factory was located on Miller Avenue about ½ mile north of Hwy 10. |
€€€€€€€€€€
