Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

June 25, 2014, Page 15

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 June 1919

 

Last week a deal was closed whereby Denis Tourigny sold his hardware business to E. S. Laabs and Powers of Kilbourn, the new firm of Laabs and Powers being now in possession.  The sale marks the close of one the the oldest, if not the oldest, business career in this city, for Mr. Tourigny has been a figure in this city for many years.  He has grown old in the business and expects now to take a rest from the cares of business.   

•••••••••

Arrangements have been made to take the Dells Dam Sunday school pupils to Neillsville Sunday by auto to attend the Children’s Day exercises, leaving the church at 9:30 a.m.                                   

•••••••••

At Christie Hall on Wednesday night, June 11, there will be a good old-time dance; the two-step, waltz and quadrille to enjoy.  Music will be by the Neillsville Jazz orchestra.                                               

•••••••••

On Thursday night the city council formally passed the new paving resolution and it would appear now as it the city of Neillsville will soon have the business streets paved from the corner of the Big Store to the depot.  The ordinance covers Hewett Street from the Big Store to the bridge at the Condensery and 7th Street from Hewett Street to the bridge.

 

It was decided to pave with vitrified brick with asphalt filler and it is understood that the entire job will be finished in about 40 days after the contract is let and work started.  The brick will be laid on a concrete foundation and in this instance there will be but very little excavation necessary.  Mr. Shafer of the John Shafer Co. was here at the meeting Thursday night consulting with the council.                                         

•••••••••

Tioga will celebrate the Fourth this year: sports of all kinds during the day; including a rifle shooting match, with a dance and fireworks in the evening.

 

Dinner and super will be served by the ladies Aid.  There will be a speaker at one o’clock.  Arrangements will be made to accommodate the children.  Everyone come and enjoy the day.         

•••••••••

With Prohibition just a week away, July 1, 25,000 saloons and roadhouses in the five “wet” states, of the central west, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Minnesota and Missouri, are getting ready to close their doors forever.

 

Thousands of bartenders, waiters, and porters have been looking around for new jobs.  Already millions of dollars’ worth of property used as breweries and distilleries, has changed hands and will be used for the manufacture of various kinds of food and drugs.

 

While some of the breweries will continue to manufacture non-intoxicating liquids, many will be used for other purposes.  A number are being transformed into cold storage plants and artificial ice factories.  One big Wisconsin brewery has become a sauerkraut factory.  Wisconsin, incidentally, has produced one-sixth of all the beer brewed in the United States.

 

Wisconsin leads in the number of drinking places in the central west, which will go out of existence.  It has about 9,650; Illinois had 8,500; Missouri 3,000; Minnesota 1,800 and Kentucky 1,300.

•••••••••

Sunday newspapers officially reported the death of Alvin Vincent who was killed in action in France.  He was a son of Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Vincent and they had received official notice of his death some time ago.

•••••••••

William Huntley, Sr., postmaster of Neillsville, died at his home in this city, Thursday, June 12, 1919.  Mr. Huntley was born in Washington County, Wis., March 25, 1849.  He leaves surviving his wife, Mary, nee Newcombe, daughters, Mrs. Elva Richardson of Fargo, N. D., Mrs. Edith Schaller of Chippewa Falls, Miss Ellen Huntley and sons, Charles of Minneapolis, Grover, William and John of Neillsville.

 

Mr. Huntley was born on a farm in Wisconsin, his parents being in modest circumstances.  He had only a common school education.  His father died when the children were young and he had to work to support his mother and the family.  He came to Clark Count in 1868, locating in the forest in the Town of Weston.  The mother and her four sons, William, Richard, John and Thomas, and a daughter Anna, came to Neillsville on the 26th of March 1869 with two oxen and two cows.  William bought 460 acres of timberland of the Fox River Land Company, and began to open up a farm, working in the logging woods in the winter.  He met with steady success and became the owner of a fine farm in the Town of Weston.  He was agent for the Fox River Company and he assisted many families in locating and purchasing farms. He loaned the settlers money and in many ways helped them in their efforts to build homes in the wilderness.  In later years, he was interested in lumbering operations on the Pacific Coast.  Twenty-six years ago he moved to Neillsville in order to afford his children better facilities for education.

 

Mr. Huntley’s capacity and integrity have been many times recognized by election or appointment to public office.  He was assessor of his Town for 14 years and chairman of his Town several terms.  He was mayor of Neillsville 11 years.  President Cleveland appointed Mr. Huntley postmaster of Neillsville and he was again appointed to that office by President Wilson.

 

He was a veteran of the Civil War, having enlisted in 1864 when only 15 years of age in Co. C 51st Wisconsin Infantry, which he served with until the close of the war, stationed in Missouri and taking part in the last skirmish of that great struggle.                                                                                                         

•••••••••

Considerable excitement is said to prevail at Unity over the annulment of a marriage that was to have taken place there last Tuesday.  The parties concerned in the affair are well known young people of that place.  As the story goes, the intended groom evaded the draft by his father deeding him the farm and making it appear that he was their sole support.  However this may be, he remained at home.  Recently, so it is said, he deeded the farm back to his father.  His disloyalty caused much talk among the young men of that area, six of whom paid him a visit on Saturday, the 14th, the object of their visit to teach him a lesson on patriotism.  Learning of their coming, the young man in question made himself scarce and escaped the reception they had in store for him.  When these facts became known and reached the ears of the intended bride, she at once called the wedding off and thus ends what might have been a happy marriage.

 

June 1939

 

Leslie Holmes of Neillsville started to sweep on South Hewett Street at 2:40 a.m., Decoration Day.  Leslie was joined by Adolph Schaub, the regular sweeper, at 4 a.m. They had made a good start in cleaning the downtown streets before many were astir.  The result was that the city’s pavements looked spick and span for Memorial Day.  Mr. Schaub has regularly been at work at 6 a.m. but has set his time forward to 5.                          

•••••••••

Heavy rainfall in almost every section of Clark County last weekend brought renewed vigor to crops and man, alike, and ended fears of another drought such as was experienced just five years ago.

 

Heavier soils in the central and northern parts of the county had received considerable rain during the week before; but lighter soils in the southern part of the county had gone without moisture since April 18.

•••••••••

Lightning late last Saturday night struck a barn on the farm occupied by Howard Strebing in Washburn Township, destroying the building, silo, about 12 tons of hay and several farm implements. Damage was estimated by August Strebing, owner of the place, at more than $2,000.

 

This week Mr. Strebing and his two sons, Howard and Raymond, were busy cleaning up the debris, in preparation to build another barn on the old foundation, and a new concrete stave silo.    

•••••••••

Miss Mildred Williams of the Town of Washburn and Albert Zank of the Town of Pine Valley were married this Wednesday afternoon, May 31, at the home of the bride’s parents.  

•••••••••

The WPA paving crew will start paving work on West Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets late this week.

 

The block, which will include the Sixth Street intersection, will be the third block of concrete paving to be laid in the city this year, and will complete the season’s paving program as planned at present.

•••••••••

Leo W. Foster and son, Jack of Neillsville and the L. G. Anderson family of Black River Falls returned last Thursday night from a four-day fishing trip to Mountain Lake, on the boundary between Minnesota and Ontario.  They returned with their limit of salmon trout, five each, and reported excellent sport.  To reach Mountain Lake it is necessary for them to make a portage of 88 rods, most of which was “nearly straight up and down,” Mr. Foster said.  The trip is an annual affair for the Fosters and Andersons.                                                                                     

•••••••••

The National convention of the Danish Lutheran Synod was concluded at Withee, Sunday after a six-day session attended by delegates, ministers and guests from virtually every section of the United States and Canada.

 

The programs were held in the high school auditorium and the Danish Lutheran Church of Withee.

•••••••••

The jubilee services of the American Lutheran Church at Granton, held last Sunday, were attended by Bertha Gerber Wiesner, 75, who attended one of the very early services of this congregation in 1864.  In that year, when the church was first incorporated, Gottfried Gerber, her father, took her into his arms and carried her through the woods, a distance of a mile.  She had no shoes on, and needed none, with her father carrying her out of the reach of the winter’s snow.

 

But this trip at the age of three was only the first of hundreds of trips, which Mrs. Wiesner had made to go to the church of her choice.  Children and grandchildren and finally a great-grandchild, have been baptized into this same church.

 

As to Mrs. Wiesner, so to many who attended the services and festivities Sunday, memories arose of the times that were gone, when the present brick building was frame, but few marked back to the days when walls of hewn logs furnished protection.

 

It was a great occasion for the church, with perhaps 1,500 in the aggregate in attendance.  The bright sun invited the people out, and they came, to visit in the woods, to enjoy the picnic dinner and to attend the three services.

 

The keynote of the occasion was struck by the Rev. George Muedeking of Oconto, who preached the afternoon sermon.

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Oldham, Town of Seif, returned home Sunday to find that the little pigs had picked their strawberries.  Charley said they did a pretty good job but complains they forgot to put them into a crate.

•••••••••

The number of farms operated by tenants increased from one million in 1880 to 2.9 million in 1935, an increase of 190 percent, while the total number of farms in the United States increased from four million in 1880 to 6.8 million in 1935, a gain of only 70 percent.                                                                                

•••••••••

Miss Mardene Esther Stanley of the Town of Grant and Joseph Chase of Pine Valley were united in marriage at Sunset Point this afternoon at 2:30 o’clock.  Rev. George W. Longenecker officiated.

•••••••••

Pouring of concrete on the wings and spillway of the Snyder Dam, on Wedges Creek, about six miles west of Neillsville, was completed Tuesday night.  The surface of the old portion of the dam will be finished within the next few days and work of clearing the area, which will form the bottom for the new lake to be started. The dam is expected to create a lake about two miles long and 500 feet wide in the widest spot, according to Ernest W. Snyder, in charge of the construction work.  Mr. Snyder expects to have the lake ready for swimming and water sports by July 4th.

•••••••••

Pleasant Ridge Baseball team is playing at Shortville Sunday, June 11.  For dates on further games phone Neillsville Y3721.                                                                                                           

•••••••••

Benefit Dance for Neillsville Flyers Baseball Team at Silver Dome, Tuesday, June 13.  Music is by Irv Lutz and His Swing Band.  Admission will be 25’, each.                                                     

•••••••••

Until the oil that is being applied to certain streets in the city becomes thoroughly hardened, there will be grief a-plenty for housewives unless the citizens look well at using the doormat, placed there for a purpose.

•••••••••

James Hauge is spending the summer at the farm home of his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. George Broiher, helping with the chores.  Ruth and Betty Hauge went down this week while their mother is attending a Rebekah convention.

•••••••••

Pets and children are dog-gone cute.  And they were never cuter than they were last Saturday afternoon, when an estimated 3,500 persons lined several blocks of Neillsville’s city streets to see the Pet Parade.

 

Seventy children from the city and surrounding countryside entered their favorite companions in the event.  Twenty-nine divisions and first place winner in each division was awarded a prize, which he was allowed to select from a group of awards offered.

 

Among the prizes chosen by those who won first places were a fishing reel, tennis shoes, roller skates, softball, fishing rod, flashlights and a fishing tackle box.                                                             

•••••••••

The Boy Scouts of Neillsville are at their camp on Lake Arbutus.  Eighteen of them went to the camp Tuesday, in charge of Earl Ruedy, scoutmaster.  There, they will enjoy camp pleasures for nine days.

 

The Scouts may be reached individually by mail by addressing them at Boy Scout Camp, Neillsville.  Letters thus addressed will reach them in accordance with arrangements made with Postmaster Kurth.

•••••••••

H. H. Van Gorden & Sons Specials! Country Girl Flour, 49 lb. bag $1.05, plus Free Dish Towel with each sack!  Ground Rye, $1 cwt.  We have a large stock of fertilizer, eating and seed potatoes, and seed corn on hand.

 

The Frank Hewett farm property was located at the northwest end of West 5th Street, from where St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church is now located, west to the Black River.  Some of that land is still under cultivation.  The Hewett home, along with farm buildings, was on land now owned by St. John’s Church.  The above photo shows the Hewett home that was destroyed by fire in the late 1940s.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Roberts)

 

€€€€€€€€€€€€

 

 


© 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