January 1908

Richard Wedekind and Ed Ziegler, of southern Town of Grant, are on the gain in having the smallpox.  They came home from working in the woods, both sick, and went to live in an empty house near their homes, where they stayed taking care of each other. They are preventing spreading the disease to others. 

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On Feb. 1, Winters Bros., the Shortville merchants, will adopt the cash system of doing business.  As they can sell goods cheaper for cash, they hope to make the change, one of considerable benefit to their customers.  They will pay cash for eggs, hides and poultry. They have a considerable amount on their books and desire that all who owe them to call at once and arrange for settlement.                                                                                          

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Eddie Dennis was taken sick with diphtheria last week, so William Rowe, health officer of the Town of York, was notified to quarantine the residence to keep the disease from spreading. Eddie’s little brother and sister died from this disease a short time ago.                                                                                        

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The young people who live around Tioga obtained permission of G. H. Palms to have a dance in the new Tioga Store building on Jan. 17th.  Everyone nearby was invited to attend.  The ladies brought refreshments. The dance was a grand success with 78 present, including 17 who came from the Braun and Butler settlements.  Hogenson’s band furnished the music and at midnight a lunch was served, after which they danced until six o’clock in the morning.

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John Vandeberg bought 40 acres of land in the Town of York from Mrs. Sarah Lindsley for $1,200.

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There was a watch meeting at Wm. Gerhardt’s on Pleasant Ridge, Tuesday evening.  Everyone had an enjoyable time.

(A New Year’s Eve Party was referred to as a “watch”, a gathering of people who watched the clock to see 12 o’clock midnight usher in the New Year. DZ)                                                   

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During the year 1907 Tragsdorf, Zimmerman & Co. shipped 1975 cases of eggs to commission houses.  Each case contained 30 dozen eggs.  They paid their customers during the year an average of 15 cents per dozen, making about $9,000 distributed to the poultry raisers in this community.  In addition to that amount, Tragsdorf, Zimmerman & Co. have sold in the neighborhood of 1,200 dozen to customers in their store and some small shipments.

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Next Saturday night the Alma Center city basketball team will be here to play the high school team at the armory.  It will be a good game as the Alma Center team is a strong one.  Reserved seats are available at Klopf’s.  Game starts at 8:30 p.m.  There will be dancing after the game.                                                        

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The village of Loyal is being shaken up by an effort to put in municipal water works and electric lights.

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The electric plant at Colby burned Tuesday. The origin of the fire is unknown. The loss is between $6,000 and $8,000.  No insurance.                                                                                                   

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The glare of a burning marsh in Jackson County could be seen on the skies here Tuesday night.

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Louisiana granulated sugar, 20 lbs. for a dollar at Tragsdorf, Zimmerman & Co.  It goes farther and is sweeter than any other sugar.                                                                                            

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Gus Deutsch went to Granton Tuesday to take charge of August Snyder’s store.

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Taxes are some higher in the Town of Hewett due to some bridges that were built there this past summer.

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No need to go hunting rabbits in the Town of Weston, around Joe Loy’s neighborhood as he has gotten them already ground up for mincemeat pies.                                                                     

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The Boons of Christie have set up their saw mill on Gus Grap’s land this week and are ready to work at sawing.

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The Convoy Hospital has been renamed the “County Hospital” and the use of it has been thrown open to all physicians in the county.                                                                                                 

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Julius Hagedorn, of the Town of Weston, got hurt quite badly when a tree limb struck him on the head while he was helping Ernest Hemp cut logs in the woods.                                     

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Sleighing was very poor Sunday as Herbie Counsell found to his cost when he drove into a large stone, which broke the crossbar on his new cutter sleigh, tipping some lady friends in the snow.

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Someone, doubtless, thinking he was playing a great joke, entered Wm. Schoengarth’s barn in North Grant the night of Jan. 20.  He untied five cows and created a general disturbance.  Mr. Schoengarth has a strong idea as to who the young gentleman was, and it would be well for such person to think twice before playing such tricks in the future.

January 1948

Several residents of the Western part of Neillsville have commented on the beautiful Christmas music produced during the holiday season by John Bremer, principal of St. John’s Lutheran School, with an outdoor speaker system he has installed at his home.                                                                                                                 

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The Rev. M. K. Aaberg, pastor of the Trondhjem Lutheran Church near Greenwood, for the last 28 years, gave his farewell sermon before a full church here Sunday.

The last 28 years, since coming to Greenwood in 1919, Rev. Aaberg served the Trondhjem Lutheran Church, just northeast of that city.  It was in that church, and before a large congregation, that he delivered his first sermon.

Rev. Aaberg was ordained into the ministry in June 1901, in Minneapolis, and held his first pastorate in Madison, S. D., for eight years before going to Sioux City, Ia.  He also served six congregations while living in Glenwood City, Wis.

For 13 years after arriving in Greenwood in 1919, the Rev. Aaberg served six congregations, including: United Lutheran, Greenwood; Trondhjem Lutheran; Emmanuel Lutheran Longwood; and Lutheran Congregations in Neillsville, Slidre and Auburndale.

Seventeen years ago Rev. Aaberg confined his activities to Longwood and Trondhjem congregations, and in recent years, he served only the Trondhjem parish.                                               

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A ski slide and tow have been established on the east end of the Neillsville Country Club golf course and arrangements were to be made Tuesday night to light the area for night skiing.

The tow was installed Sunday morning by Jim Hauge, John M. Peterson and Dick Prochaka.  It is approximately 300 feet long and is powered by an old automobile motor, which Jim, Calvin Swenson, Dick Van Gorden and others rigged up for that purpose.

Until a week or so ago the tow had been on the Neillsville mound, where Neillsville skiing enthusiasts had brushed and cleared a slide. The slide, however, had been abandoned.

Decision to put it in to work on the golf course for the remainder of the year was made after abandonment of the mound slide.

The group, with whoever else wishes to help, plans to establish a real slide on Bruce Mound, in the Town of Dewhurst, for next year.  The area contemplated for the Bruce Mound slide is said by these people to be one of the finest in this section of the state.                                                                                            

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The first wolf bounty of this year has been claimed by Frank Lipkie of Augusta.  He brought five mature timber wolves into the office of County Clerk Mike Krultz, Jr., to make the bounty claim.  He shot them in the Town of Dewhurst on December 30. This is the largest group of wolves brought in by a single man in one day in the memory of old courthouse hands.  The bounty is $20 per wolf, paid by the state. So Mr. Lipkie stands to get $100 for the five.

Bounty claims totaling $3,165 for fox and wolves killed in Clark County were made in the office of County Clerk Mike Krultz, Jr., during the year of 1947.

Bounty was claimed on 437 fox, for a total of $2,185.  Half of this total, $1,092.50 was paid by the county; the other half is paid by the state.

Wolves killed in Clark County totaled 56, according to the claims.  They bring a bounty of $20 making a total of $1,080.  The entire bounty on wolves is paid by the state.

This was the highest number of bounty claims in many years, Mr. Krultz said.

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During the next three weeks about 120,000 pictures will be taken in the office of the Clark County register of deeds.

These pictures are microfilms, 35-millimeter exposures of all records in that office, which have a bearing on real estate titles.  Among the records being filmed are: deeds, mortgages, lis pendens, corporation records, patents, indices, old age assistance records and miscellaneous records.

The work is being done by a Merrill concern for the Clark County Abstract Company. The company will have a “reader,” which projects the film onto a ground glass screen and magnified to the actual size of the record, thus in effect giving the company a complete set of records necessary in abstracting at its fingertips in its office.

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A new residence, to be occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Gerber, on the southeast corner of South Hewett and First Street intersection, is nearing completion.  It is built largely of stone from a quarry on Gerber’s farm near Granton, and from local lumber, some of which was salvaged from a barn and the rest of which was produced locally.

The construction has progressed somewhat deliberately, Mr. Gerber doing much of the work himself. The excavation was made in April 1946.

Mr. and Mrs. Gerber sold their farm near Granton recently and have moved their household goods Friday and Saturday to their new home. The house is not finished, but they plan to finish it as they can. The new owners of the Gerber farm are Mr. and Mrs. Henry Freestone, formerly of Menomonie. They have been living with Mrs. Freestone’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Buchholz, southeast of Neillsville.                                    

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Marriage Licenses:

Delores J. Bush, Neillsville and Arnold J. Opelt, Neillsville

Marliss Finch, Loyal, and Vernon Henninger, Granton

Shirley V. Capes, Owen and Ellsworth G. Shock, Neillsville          

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Loss estimated at about $5,700 was suffered Saturday night when fire razed the house adjoining Club 10, three miles east of Neillsville on Highway 10.

The house and club are owned by Mr. and Mrs. Myron Westerman, who moved there a few months ago. The damage, $5,000 to the house and $700 to personal belongings, was fully covered by insurance, Mr. Westerman said.

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The government thermometer in Neillsville hit 40 below early Saturday morning, January 17, 1948.  It was the coldest in the memory of most local residents, but not as cold as some of the old timers tell.  In the pioneer days the reckoning was not by government thermometer, and so the stories must be taken with allowances.

It was so cold Saturday morning that the fuel oil congealed in the outside tank at the George Freezy home, 132 21st Street.  The fire went out and the Freezys were compelled to pour hot water over the connections before their oil heater went to work again.

Temperatures reported from Merrillan was 44; from Hatfield, 42 below.

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More than 700 silver dollars were turned loose in Neillsville Monday night when the local Service Company received its first pay since reorganization.

Attached to each “cart-wheel” was a red sticker to indicate that the coin had come into the community as a part of the National Guard payroll. By this means people of the community will be able to gain some impression of the financial value to the city of the Service Company.

The total payroll amounted to $944.99, of which $166.83 went to out-of-town officers connected with the company, according to Capt. Hallie Gault.  The remaining $778.16 was distributed to local members. The payroll covered the period of September, October and November.                                                 

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Back to wood and coal; that was the one point of complete agreement among oil dealers and public officials who met at Greenwood Monday evening to face the oil crisis.  On other points their viewpoints and conclusions varied, bur on the point of re-conversion there was complete unanimity.

So the upshot of this countrywide meeting, which brought together practically all the oil men of the county, together with nearly all town chairmen, village presidents and mayors, was the urgent advice to reconvert wherever possible and appointment of deputy fuel coordinators, one for each community. The coordinators, as named by Arthur E. Stadler, chairman of the meeting, are the town chairmen, the presidents of the villages and the mayors of the cities.

All of the 100 present were brought to the grim realization of the situation, as they exchanged information and views. Not a single community in the county has enough oil. The shortage varies in present intensity, with Abbotsford hardest hit. The report from Abbotsford was that by Thursday of this week every oil user will be completely out.  In that village kerosene is the only oil available and that has been selling in five-gallon lots, cash and carry.  Loyal and Granton were also reported to be entirely out of fuel oil.

The report from all over the county was that there had been almost an epidemic of conversion.  Users of wood and coal had abandoned those fuels and had gone to oil. The result had been a demand in Clark County beyond all precedent. This local demand is typical of the country.  Everywhere it has been the same. Conversion has been going on a pace, as fast as oil-burning equipment has been available. The result is that companies have been swamped.