|
|
Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin June
6, 2012, Page 11 Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press" Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon. Index of "Oldies" Articles
Compiled by Dee Zimmerman
Clark County News |
1918
History of Clark County
By Franklin Curtiss Wedge
GREENWOOD
Greenwood, situated not far from
the geographical center of Clark County, is platted on a rise of ground, at the
junction of the Black River and Rock Creek.
Its sightly business houses and residences, it s high water tower, its
gently undulating adjacent farm lands, and its miles of good roads radiating in
many directions, all tend to add to its beauty and charm, while its two
railroads; the Fairchild & Northwestern and the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault
Ste. Marie, better known as the “Soo”, add to its importance as a trading and
shipping center. Its principal shipments are dairy products.
The population is about 700
persons. In 1895 it was 559, in
1900 it was 708, and in 1910 it was 665.
The first settlement, at what is
now Greenwood, was made in 1848, when Van Dusen & Waterman erected a mill west
of the Black River. A little later Albert Lambert built a mill not far away, and
the locality became one of the pioneer milling centers of the county.
In 1954, Charles W. Carpenter arrived, in June 10, 1857 they took up a
large tract of land, and erected a log cabin, which, sided over, is still
standing. In 1859 he sold out to S. C. Honeywell, who engaged in farming and
lumbering. From time to time others came
in.
Homer M. Root arrived in December
1869. At that time S. C. Honeywell and Collett Durham had frame houses there.
John Bowerman, William H. Begley and Stephen Andres had log houses and
there was also a log schoolhouse, all on the east side of the river, while west
of the river stood the mill of Elijah Eaton. The first merchant was S. C.
Honeywell, who had a small stock of goods in his house.
In 1870, Chandler and Brown, from
Black River Falls, opened the first regular store, and the same year, W. H.
Begley opened a hotel. Begley operated the stagecoach from Black River Falls,
and employed Jesse Crane as his first driver.
On this stage line, two and a half miles south of Greenwood, Henry
Huntzicker had a log tavern. A half-mile further south, George H. Huntzicker had
his home. In 1875, George H. Huntzicker built a larger tavern, which he operated
until the late 1880’s.
The village of Greenwood was
platted June 6, 1871, by William Welsch. He was assisted by Charles Hogue, Oscar
Nutting and Frank Brown. The village name was given by Mary Honeywell, later
Mrs. Smith Honeywell, as befitting the beauty of its natural surroundings.
It was re-platted Aug. 16, 1895, by William B. Agnew for some sixty
owners.
The first birth after the village
was laid out was that of Maude Brown, daughter of B. F. Brown. The first
marriage was that of John Honeywell and Rachael Hodges in the fall of 1871. The
first death was that of Elijah Eaton, Dec. 4, 1872.
Settlers at first came in slowly.
In 1890, the year before it was incorporated, the village contained three
general stores, two hardware stores, two meat markets, two blacksmith shops, two
millinery and dressmaking establishments, one wagon shop, one grocery store, one
confectionary store, one flour and agricultural implement store, one harness
shop, one shoe shop, one furniture store and factory, one hotel, one barber
shop, one public hall, an Odd Fellows Hall, a Methodist Episcopal Church, a
photograph gallery, creamery and a saw mill.
Greenwood has since then enjoyed a
steady growth in importance and prosperity.
Its three greatest disasters have been the fire of 1885, which destroyed
eight buildings and left a blackened gap in the village; the fire of 1900, which
destroyed the Kippenhan & Palms heading mill and the flood of 1914, which took
out the dike dam, the dam and mill at Hemlock and the bridge across the Black
River, in addition to other damage done in this region up and down the valley.
In
1900 Kippenhan and Palms built the Heading Mill, pictured above, which
was put into operation in June of that year. The mill, which was located
on Greenwood’s south side along Main Street, was a thriving business in
the 1900-1910 era, employing a number of workers. |
|
Greenwood was incorporated as a city by act of the legislature
and approved April 2, 1891. The first city mayor was David Justice; aldermen,
Robert Schofield, B. F. Thompson, L. W. Larson and David Shanks; treasurer, S.
M. Anders; clerk, Elias Peterson; assessor.
The principal improvements consist of the waterworks and fire
protection, the electric light system with its magnificent dam and the public
library. The library is supported by the city and contains some 1,500 volumes.
It is housed in rooms over the post office, in charge of Mrs. Ida E.
Thompson.
The waterworks system was installed by Richard S. Kountz of
Neillsville and operated as a private concern until taken over by the city.
In 1911, the city added to the system a 40,000 gallon standpipe at a cost
of $3,300, and the mains have been extended at various times.
The fire department equipment consists of two hose carts,
hand-drawn. The department, which is entirely volunteer, is headed by Albert
Schwarze, chief, William Schwarze, assistant chief, and C. C. Hoehne, foreman.
The dam across the Black River at this point was started in
October 1905 and accepted by the city council Aug. 6, 1906. Constructed with a
twelve-foot head on a solid rock foundation, the dam proper is 253 feet long, of
concrete, fifteen feet wide at the bottom, with an apron of thirty-four feet.
The spillways, six feet lower than the bulkheads on either side, is about 166
feet long, with six gates, 4 by 5 feet. The fish-way is also 4 by 5 feet. The
crib, under the powerhouse, is 24 feet.
In constructing this dam, fourteen carloads of cement were used, three
times as much sand and five times as much gravel, making 126 loads in all.
The powerhouse is 16 by 34 feet, with an eleven foot ceiling.
The wheel is a 33-inch turbine, 106 horsepower, with 175 revolutions per minute,
under a 12-foot head of water. The dynamo is of the 60-killowatt, 60-cycle, with
alternating current type, runs 900 revolutions per minute and requires
75-horsepower with full load. The system covers nearly four miles of poles, with
seven street arc lights of 1,200 candlepower, twenty-nine side street lights
with thirty-two candle power and fourteen transformers.
The new school building, started in 1913 and opened in 1914,
is of vitrified brick, 61 by 100 feet, three stories high with a complete
gymnasium, in addition to the usual recitation, assembly, cloak and office
rooms. The equipment is modern throughout, with steam heat, fan ventilation, hot
and cold water throughout, and both tub and shower baths. The cost of the
completed building was about $35,000. The force consists of nine teachers. There
are four graded rooms, two grades to a room and a full high school course, with
special instruction in Domestic Science, Manual Training and Agriculture. The
first school in the vicinity was taught by David Hoseley in a log cabin located
on the present site of the La Crosse Brewery building. It was wartime, and for a
time, the school roster was limited to the children of Elijah Eaton, S. C.
Honeywell and John Dwyer. The next
school was kept at the cabin of Robert Schofield.
After the village was surveyed, a location was selected on the village
site at the present location of the Greenwood State Bank Building. That building
was used until the present structure was put up.
The railroads have contributed materially to the prosperity of
the city, the Wisconsin Central, now a part of the “Soo” system, having been
built from Marshfield in 1891, and the Fairchild & Northwestern, the “Foster
Road,” having been built from Fairchild in 1895.
A shipping station furnishes an outlet for the dairy products
of the region and principal business industries are the Greenwood Roller Mills.
The American Society of Equity buys and ships stock for the benefit of its
members.
The Eau Claire Creamery Co., with headquarters at Eau Claire,
has operated a branch at Greenwood since 1906.
The creamery was built by Carl Glasshorn, who sold to the present
company. Some cheese and butter was made as late as 1917, but the establishment
is now entirely devoted to pasteurizing and shipping milk to outside points.
The Greenwood Roller Mills business was built in 1916 by N. C.
Foster of Fairchild. The capital stock is $20,000, mostly owned in Greenwood.
The mill has a daily capacity of fifty barrels of flour and also turns
out considerable feed. It is
operated by steam power and equipped with five sets of double rollers. The
elevator, which is operated in connection, has a capacity of 25,000 bushels.
H. H. Hartson is the manager.
June 1942
Farmers of Clark County already
have pledged to purchase $97,345.25 worth of war bonds and war savings stamps
during 1942. The pledge campaign in
rural areas is being conducted under the direction of the USDA war board, of
which Axel Sorenson is chairman.
•••••••••
They will not be needed immediately, but when the sun bakes
the country forests to tinder-dry and forest fires again figure as a threat, 190
Clark County residents will be available for fire fighting service.
This was the report of James Churchill, forest ranger at the
Pray observation station, made to the county civilian defense council. These 190
people have received instruction and training in fighting forest fires and have
volunteered to help if they are called. They include 110 who recently completed
training and 45 men who were previously trained.
•••••••••
In perhaps the first ceremony of its kind in this area since
the start of this World War, a plaque with the names inscribed of 53 men from
Willard who have entered the armed service of this nation was dedicated at the
Holy Family Catholic Church Sunday.
The plaque, along with an American Flag, was dedicated
formally in the afternoon, following a morning mass spoken for the men from this
neighborhood that are in the service of our country. Four youths enrolled in the
army were present as the plaque bearing their names was dedicated. They were:
Sgt. Victor Trost, Corp. John Volk, Corp. Alfons Hemersbach, Jr., and Pvt.
Robert Debevec.
The morning service was celebrated by the Rev. Fr. Raphael
Stragisher. The Rev. Fr. J. J.
Novak of Greenwood assisted in the afternoon. Following the dedicator service in
the afternoon, the congregation marched in a body to the West Side Hall,
striding to the tempo furnished by the nine-piece Volovsek family band.
There, Frank Perovsek acted as chairman, introducing Fr. Raphael and
Ludwig Perushek, Sr., father of two boys in the service.
A church choir of nine boys and four girls led in the singing
of “America,” and other patriotic songs with organ accompaniment played by Mrs.
Ivan Ruzic.
•••••••••
When the U. S. S. Marblehead, light cruiser of the Asiatic
fleet limped into an eastern port recently, she brought a Clark County boy back
from the war.
He is Rex Pickett, son of Mr. and Mrs. Earl N. Pickett of
Spencer, Rt. 1; a nephew of George Beeckler, Levis Town chairman, and Miss
Daphne Beeckler, Neillsville public School teacher.
He is a grandson of E. A. Beeckler of Granton.
Rex, home on furlough, carries the marks of the sea-air battle
in the Java Sea, in which the Marblehead came within an ace of going to the
bottom. She suffered two direct
bomb hits and a damaging “near miss;” survived the “death whirl,” the only ship
that has remained afloat to tell about it; proceeded 5,000 miles with her main
engines as her only means of steering. Three times the Japanese reported her
sunk.
Red patches on Rex’s arms show where he was burned as the
Marblehead burst into flames after a bomb hit. His hair is growing in curlier
than before. It seems that hair
sometimes does so when it is singed off, and his was burned off by a blasting
bomb that pierced the forward deck.
It was shortly after the battle in the Macassar Strait, the
one in which some 30 of the Japanese transport and supply shops were surprised
and sent to the bottom, that the Marblehead was knocked out of action.
“We were probably lucky, at that,” says Rex; “otherwise we
probably would have been with the Houston when she went down in the Java Sea.”
The Marblehead was in the Java Sea a few days after she had
given protection and support to the destroyers which, surprised Japanese convoys
in Macassar Strait. The great naval battle for Java was impending.
The air suddenly seemed filled with Japanese planes, high
flying above, out of reach of the Marblehead’s anti-aircraft defenses; dive
bombers that roared almost straight downward to unload their eggs.
The Marblehead was a marked ship, Rex said, “The Japs hated
her and were out to get her.” She
had done “plenty of damage;” had earned the nickname of the “Galloping Ghost of
the China Coast.”
Rex was at his battle station on deck when the bombers
launched their attack.
“Scared?” “No,” he said.
“You’re too busy in battle to be scared. Each man has his job to do, and
he doesn’t have much time to worry about what is going on.”
So Rex was too busy to worry when a bomb crashed through the
main deck and exploded. He saw a
sailor next to him drop as shrapnel tore his flesh.
It was another bomb, a “near miss” that did the greatest
material damage to the Marblehead.
Striking the water close by, its explosion tore a hole in the ship’s side below
the water line.
“The hole was almost large enough to drive a truck-tractor
through,” Rex said.
Although the ship was in sinking condition, water-tight
bulkheads kept out the sea while pumps and men turned to bailing.
Still another bomb, a second direct hit, damaged the engines
that operate the rudder. When this happened, the rudder was locked at a
45-degree angle. The Marblehead
started in a “death whirl.”
Its steering apparatus locked, the great ship moved in swift
circles. Usually, they go like that, until they capsize, roll over with their
topside under water. Then finis.
The 45,000-ton German battleship Bismarck was in a death whirl before she
went down. No ship ever before has come out of one. But the Marblehead was a
ghost ship. She somehow came out of it, the only ship known to do so.
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
© 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
|
|
A site created and
maintained by the Clark County History Buffs
Webmasters: Leon Konieczny, Tanya Paschke, Janet & Stan Schwarze, James W. Sternitzky,
|